


Top Secret

by VyraFinn



Series: The Icelandic Studies [2]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-04
Updated: 2019-01-05
Packaged: 2019-05-02 06:39:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 68,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14538858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VyraFinn/pseuds/VyraFinn
Summary: Iceland thought that his life would return to normal once he finished the studies in Copenhagen. Unfortunately, he wasn’t right about that, and a bet made with Norway gives him whole new set of problems. Can he survive the Norwegian military training and find the spy before it is too late? There is also something strange going on with Denmark and Norway, but Iceland is not even sure if he wants to know more about that. Sequel to Higher Education.





	1. New Secret

**First chapter: New secret**

 

“Hey, Icey-boy”, Puffin said and landed on the sleeping nation, “Icey-boy!”

“What?” Iceland grunted and opened his eyes only for to give the bird a bad look, “I am sleeping!”

“Can’t miss that with that loud snoring”, the bird said, “your brother is here!”

“What?” Iceland asked again, but sounded this time more confused than angry.

“Your vocabulary is so poor today”, Puffin said, “get up! I am not gonna be the host here. Your brother gives me creeps.” Iceland sighed and refused to open his eyes.

“He gives creeps to everybody if he wants so. He is also a control freak who likes to stalk others and has no own life, I swear”, he muttered, “where is he now? Puffin?” The bird didn’t reply, and there was a hint of awkwardness in that silence. Iceland was still laying on his back with his eyes closed and he was starting to think it was better to keep them closed forever. Too bad, he didn’t have the luxury to do so.

“Is he standing right at the door?” he asked.

“No, it is me”, a slightly amused sounding voice replied with fluent Danish, “the creepy control freak is in the kitchen making breakfast, though I prefer to call him a freaking hot Norwegian. It just sounds better, you know.”

“Hey, Dan”, Iceland muttered and finally opened his eyes, only to see the Danish man standing at the door with a grin on his face.

“Good morning to you too”, Denmark replied. Iceland nodded and glanced at the bird that was still sitting on his chest.

“You only talked about my brother?” he said and gave the bird a bad look that has no effect at all.

“Well, Icey-boy”, Puffin muttered, “ya shoulda get that the jerk follows him anyway. I dontcha tell you all, right?”

“I guess”, Iceland muttered when the puffin flew off. He wasn’t too surprised about the bird’s disliking toward the Dane. Puffin had made it clear a long time ago that he only tolerated the Icelandic nation, and especially lately he had been even more rude for the Dane. Iceland had noticed it, but had tactically decided that he didn’t care because he had a feeling that it would only be problems.

“Are you gonna get up or should I tell Nor you will want to have a breakfast in bed?” Denmark asked.

“If I don’t get up, will you two leave me alone?” Iceland asked back.

“I think that is not an option”, the Dane replied with an amused tone, and Iceland sighed, “it has been weeks since we saw you last time.”

“I have been busy”, Iceland muttered and felt a sharp stab of regret when he realized he had once again forgot to keep contact with his family. After all the mess with his education and secrets during the previous year, he had sworn to be more careful about letting at least Norway and Denmark to know what he was doing.

“We know”, the Dane said and gave him a comforting smile after noticing how his expression changed to upsetting, “don’t worry. We are not here to drag you kicking and screaming into our land, or well I guess it would be Nor’s because you are avoiding mine which is really pity but I understand you and…”

“You can take a breath between words, you know”, Iceland muttered while he got up from the bed and grabbed a pair of pants from the chair near the bed. He didn’t bother with dressing up too much when it was just his family present. If they really wanted to visit him uninvited early in the morning, they deserved to see him poorly dressed and hair messed up after sleep. Denmark gave him a sheepish smile and quietly followed him when he made his way to the kitchen. He could hear Norway talking with a soft voice before he stepped in, and he was not surprised to see the man completely alone once he got into the kitchen. With whoever he had been talking too, it seemed that the conversation hadn’t been too important, because Iceland got his full attention right after stepping in to the room.

“Island”, Norway said, and his lips turned into a small smile, “how wonderful to see you again. I hoped you would be here.”

“This is my home”, the Icelander muttered and sat down on the chair, “hi.”

“Isn’t he such a sunshine after waking up?” Denmark asked with a cheerful tone and went to give the Norwegian a peck on the cheek.

“Shut up, Dane”, Iceland muttered and managed to make the both men snigger.

“He takes after you”, Denmark told the Norwegian, who simply shrugged and turned back to the breakfast he was preparing.

“Anybody would tell you to shut up”, he noted and smirked slightly when the Dane started to defend himself loudly. Iceland sat there quietly and followed how the older men argued with a playful way that clearly stated they were joking. Denmark had traces of laugh in his whining, and Norway had a warm look in his eyes though he was pretending to be cold and distant. Iceland didn’t bother to join in. He only listened and let them be silly just like they always were. He didn’t even talk again until Norway placed a bowl in front of him.

“Porridge?” Iceland asked and glanced up to his brother who nodded, “always porridge?”

“It is good for you”, the Norwegian replied.

“You might even grow a bit if you eat that”, Denmark added and smirked when the Icelander gave him a long look.

“I hate you both”, he said and started to eat, enjoying the familiar taste he had grown accustomed during the years. Porridge was Norway’s favourite and so the Icelander too had eaten it often.

“No, you do not”, Norway replied and smiled softly when he sat down too with his plate, “in fact you care about us greatly. Why else you would have hide the fact that you are still recovering from the last year? If you didn’t care, you would have no reason to hide things like that.” The Norwegian and Dane sat down to enjoy their breakfast, though Iceland was sure it was their second breakfast already. It took some time to fly out from their land to his so at least those two had have coffee earlier.

“Your logic makes no sense”, Iceland muttered, “I am not recovering from anything.”

“Then, pray tell me, why are you avoiding Copenhagen?” Norway asked, and Iceland quickly turned away when he glanced at him, “we have re-located already two meetings because you don’t want to be there.”

“And of course, we don’t mind”, Denmark noted and somewhat managed to soften the Norwegian’s harsh sounding words, “I am all okay with you staying out of my land so far that you are not avoiding me as a person.” The Dane smiled, but there was a slightly hurt look in his eyes. He clearly tried to hide it and he had been successful so far, but finally Iceland was catching up. He felt sharp stab of regret once again, and he understood why Norway had been harsher to him lately. Not that his brother had turned rude or evil, but there has been a colder undertone in his voice during the last couple of times they had been talking.

“Sorry”, Iceland said, looking at his porridge meal instead of the older nations. Immediately a hand reached for him, and ruffled his hair for comfort and affection.

“Don’t worry about it”, Denmark said. Iceland nodded, and they didn’t talk about the topic anymore for that day.

It didn’t surprise Iceland that Norway and Denmark ended up staying longer than one day, or that they refused to tell him exactly when they were planning to return home. When he asked, they only said that they were leaving when they were done. Iceland didn’t ask with what they were excepting to be done, and he let them be. It was just his brother and Denmark. They would not cause too many problems, and it was nice to have some company over. During his time in the University, he had got used to have them around all the time and, though he would never say it out loud, he had missed the sounds of other people in his home.

“Island”, Norway said and almost startled the Icelander who had been washing the dishes. He sighed and put the plate down for a moment.

“Sneaking around again?” Iceland asked, and Norway nodded with a small smirk playing on his lips.

“According to you, that is what I do best”, he said, “don’t ask Dan’s opinion on that. You will not like it.”

“Fully noted”, Iceland said, “wanted to talk about something?” He knew it was only two of them in the house. Denmark had left few minutes earlier to do something he had never really explained, and Puffin had been away already since Norway and Denmark had showed up. Iceland wasn’t sure where the bird was, but wasn’t too worried about it.

“Indeed, I wanted”, Norway replied, “how are you?” Iceland frowned and glanced at his brother quickly before continuing his task of making the plates clean. He could have used the dishwasher too, but he rarely bothered because he lived alone and never had so much to clean up around.

“Fine”, Iceland said, “just normal things. Why?”

“I see”, Norway said with a small nod, “I am only asking.”

“Why?”

“Isn’t it normal for one to be worried about one’s little brother?” Norway asked with smile.

“I guess”, Iceland replied with a shrug.

“You are still upset about last year.” Iceland shrugged, and Norway didn’t say anything. He only started to pile up the already cleaned dishes and let the silence form between them.

“Not really”, Iceland finally said after a while.

“Are you sure about that?” Norway asked, “there has to be a reason for your behaviour.”

“Yeah”, Iceland said, “it was just… I don’t even think about it anymore. I did all I had to and now I have moved on.”

“So stubborn”, Norway muttered.

“I think you are not the right person to complain about that”, Iceland said dryly and reached for the last plate in the sink, “Nore, I know you are worried about me, but I am perfectly capable to survive by my own.”

“I know that”, Norway replied with a nod.

“So why are you bullying me then?”

“I am not bullying you”, he said. Iceland stopped for a moment to stare at his brother. Norway had always been more and less mysterious, preferring to keep his plans and thoughts as secret, but Iceland had learnt to know him, and he could see the Norwegian was once again scheming something.

“What is it this time?” he asked, “you have got an evil plan again.” Norway didn’t seem to be disappointed about the Icelander catching up. In fact, it seemed to amuse him mostly and he smiled.

“It has always been difficult to keep my…”, he paused for a moment to think, but continued with a smirk on his lips, “…evil plans, like you put it, as a secret when you are around.”

“You are horrible.”

“Only sometimes”, Norway noted, “and when it is needed.”

“So what is it?” Iceland asked.

“I wanted to know if you would be interested on a simple bet”, Norway said, “and to spend some time in my land. After all, I am still jealous about Dan having you at his place for such a long time.”

“You were there too.”

“Only half of the time”, Norway noted, “it is unfair.”

“I don’t care”, Iceland muttered, but he knew the Norwegian wasn’t going to give up so easily, so he sighed and continued, “which kind of bet?”

“About if you really can survive with humans”, Norway replied, “I am planning to send you for a training in my land. Don’t worry, it will be only six months.”

“I can survive with humans fine”, Iceland claimed, though he still felt bad about the classmates he had abounded. Fortunately, they had stopped trying to contact him after he declined to answer or even check the messages for few months.

“Prove it then”, Norway said. Iceland bit his lip, knowing that he couldn’t back out from that.

“I will”, he said, “what is the bet part? I know you, there has to be a catch.” Norway smirked and nodded, clearly satisfied with the results he had got.

“I will send in somebody who works for me”, the Norwegian said, “you have six months’ time to figure out who in your team knows about us. Without revealing the secret, of course.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad”, Iceland muttered, “what happens if I lose?”

“You will stay in my land one year as my guest”, Norway said, “I wish to see you more often.”

“You know, normally people just ask another to visit them.”

“I thought you would enjoy having a little game”, Norway replied with a small shrug, “you can always say no and come to my place right now without any tricks.” Iceland honestly had nothing against of spending time with his brother. In fact, it would be relaxing because Norway’s home was always calm, and he knew that there he didn’t need to worry about anything. But Norway had given him a challenge, and he could not just pass that without making his brother to think he was a coward, or so Iceland thought.

“Okay”, he said, “what I get if I win, then?”

“Whatever you want”, Norway promised.

“Do I have to choose now?” Iceland asked and for his surprise, Norway shook his head. The Norwegian was clever, and he knew it was a risk for him to enter in such a bet where he could not be sure what Iceland wanted for winning. He trusted his little brother enough to do so.

“Six months training, one spy to find”, Norway said, “that is all.” Iceland thought about it a while longer, but it was already clear what he was going to say. Norway knew he had managed to trick the younger nation’s curiosity and proudness, maybe also the interest on the possibility of getting anything from the Norwegian nation in case he won the bet.

“Okay”, Iceland said with a nod, “I will do it, if my boss agrees.”

“Oh, he will”, Norway said.

“Be nice and don’t scare him like you usually do”, Iceland muttered dryly.

“I swear, it is never my intention to scare your leaders”, the Norwegian said and carefully placed the towel he had used back to the rail hanging from the wall, “well, I have some business to attend. We will see for the dinner.”

“Don’t make any mess”, Iceland muttered.

“Don’t worry”, Norway said from the door and smiled softly, “you will not even notice me doing anything.” He walked away and after a brief moment Iceland heard the door closing after him. He sighed and shook his head, once again deciding that he should stay far from his brother’s plans and business. He focused on cleaning the kitchen, and he had just finished throwing away all the food that had gone bad without him noticing, when Denmark showed up. The Dane had his normal smile on his lips, and it didn’t fade even when he realized that the Norwegian personification wasn’t present.

“Hi, Dan”, Iceland said with a bored tone, “don’t eat that. It is spoiled.” Denmark withdrew his hand from the half full sausage packet, and nodded. He went to grab a glass of water instead, drinking it quickly like he had been thirsty already for a while.

“Hi”, the Dane said after he had drunk enough, “what are you doing?”

“Cleaning.”

“Is Nor around?” he asked hopefully, but Iceland shook his head, “oh, where he is?”

“Out somewhere”, Iceland replied, “carrying out his evil plans.”

“Okay”, Denmark said with a nod and smile on his lips, “any idea about what?”

“Probably it is something related to the bet we made”, Iceland replied, and Denmark who had just going to drink a bit more water, almost dropped his glass. He turned to give the Icelander a look of surprise, and slowly shook his head.

“You made a bet with him?”

“Yeah”, Iceland said and frowned, “why would you care about that?”

“Do you have any idea how stupid it is to make bets with Nor?” the Dane asked, “he always wins. He is too clever to lose something like that, you know, he just knows everything.”

“He has to lose sometimes”, Iceland muttered, but the look on the Dane’s face made him worried. He still pushed that feeling away and focused on getting the sink cleaned up after he had dumped all the old milk into it.

“I have never seen that happen”, the Dane muttered and stared out from the window, “damn.”

“What?”

“I owe 300 crowns to Nor now”, the man explained.

“How come?”

“I just made a bet with him about this”, he said, “I was sure you would never agree on his plan.” Iceland stopped and gave the Dane a long look, trying to understand what the man had just said.

“You told me it is not smart to make bets with him”, he said slowly after a brief quiet moment.

“Yeah”, Denmark replied with a grin, “but I like to try my luck and Nor is always pleased when he wins, and when he is pleased…”

“Please, don’t finish that sentence”, Iceland begged, “knowing you, I am going to know something I don’t need to know.” Denmark grinned and closed his mouth, nodding shortly before he went for taking another sip of water.

“You are gonna be screwed”, he noted.

“I know.”

 

****

 

“I am not sure if I understood correctly”, Iceland said politely couple of days later when he was in meeting with his boss, “could you repeat again?” He was wearing his good suit because he had had an appointment with few ambassadors from other countries, and he had wanted to make a good impression. He had been already in way out from the office when his boss had called for him. Iceland had taken a deep sigh, but followed the human anyway into the fine furnished office that was really familiar for him after all the years he had held meetings with his leaders. He had asked that same question already twice, and the human looked slightly worried about his nation’s behaviour, but opened his mouth to once again repeat the few sentences he had said. The clock on the wall was ticking but otherwise nothing disturbed them. Iceland had heard correctly for the first time, but he just needed to hear it again to believe.

“I would like you to take your training further”, the humans said a bit slower than last time, “the Norwegians have offered us a possibility to send you in their military training. I have discussed about this with several officers and we have noted that you are indeed lacking with your military training.”

“That cunning, evil Norwegian”, Iceland muttered under his breath. Norway had said the bet was about training, but he had never mentioned anything about it being military training. Suddenly the Norwegian’s ulterior motives became a bit clearer.

“What did you say?” the human asked, looking slightly confused.

“Nothing”, Iceland quickly replied, “why I would need military training? We are not going for war anytime soon, I believe.” Iceland added quietly in his mind that if his boss suddenly reveals that they are indeed going to war, he will suggest them to invade Norway first. The Norwegian deserved it after tricking him like this, and that was honestly a good plan.

“Well”, the boss said, “military training is also otherwise useful. This one is especially made for training leadership and group dynamic with survival skills. Even when it is highly unlikely that we are forced into military conflict, skills like this are still something you should know about.”

“I have been taught to fight”, Iceland muttered, “Dan and Nore took care of that.”

“And when did that happen?” his boss asked, and the nation hesitated before he sighed.

“In 1680”, he muttered quietly.

“The swords are not widely used anymore.” Iceland gave his boss a bored look and snorted. He didn’t really appreciate the joke, but he knew the man was right once again. Though he wasn’t excited about going for training again, he knew he had made his decision at the moment he accepted the Norwegian’s challenge.

“When I will have to move?” he asked. His boss seemed to be surprised about him accepting the idea so quickly, after all the Icelander had been hesitating much more last time he had been sent away.

“Well, the program the Norwegians offered will start on Friday next week”, he said, “but I believe we can select another one, so you will have more time to prepare.”

“No, it is okay”, Iceland said, “better to get this done as soon as possible.”

“Very well”, the human said with still slightly surprised tone, “I will take care of all the practical work, so you can just get ready for the travel.”

“Thank you”, Iceland muttered, “may I leave now? I have some things I will have to discuss about with the nations that I guess are my family.”

“Of course”, the human said, “have a nice evening.”

“You too”, Iceland replied and got up. He waited until he was out from the room, and then he sighed.


	2. Norway's Secret

When Iceland got back home, he found Norway and Denmark in the living room. The Dane was laying on the couch and the Norwegian sat next to him, carefully wrapping up his arm with a white bandage. There was a blood-stained towel and papers on the floor, and Iceland frowned when he walked closer.

“Is he alive?” he asked quietly when he noticed that the Dane was laying limp with his eyes closed. Norwegian glanced up from his work and shook his head.

“Just sleeping”, he said, “we had a long day.”

“With what?” Iceland asked, because for sure it wasn’t normal for him to come home exhausted and hurt. Though then again, that could be very normal for the Dane.

“Do you really want to know?” Norway asked, and seemed to know already what he would get for reply.

“No”, Iceland replied, “will he be okay?”

“Yes, it wasn’t too deep cut”, the Norwegian said with a small smile on his lips, “he had had much worse, believe me. He is still going to whine about this when he wakes up.” Iceland nodded and glanced at the dirty towel again. There was a good amount of blood in it, but he couldn’t see any on the floor or around the Dane, and he knew well enough that their healing skills would have fixed even bigger wounds easily and fast.

“Why are you patching him up?” he asked out of curiosity, “the cut is probably already closing.” Norway nodded shortly and finished his work carefully. He had wrapped the arm so gently and well he just could.

“It is not only about helping him to heal”, he said softly and leaned to kiss the man’s temple, showing surprisingly lot of public affection though Iceland wasn’t really shocked about that, “it is about showing that I care. If he wakes up dried blood on his skin and the wound uncovered, he will be thinking I didn’t bother with him. I will not let him get such stupid ideas in his head. It takes him forever to get over it.”

“I see”, Iceland muttered and watched how his brother carefully moved the Dane’s wounded arm to lay comfortably on the man’s chest. Norway got up from the chair and briefly petted Denmark’s hair before picking up the towel and walking to the laundry room. Iceland wandered after him and waited that the Norwegian finished his task of dumping the towel into cold water.

“Nore”, he said, “why?”

“Why what?” Norway asked and turned to look at him.

“Military training”, Iceland replied with a sigh, “why you want to send me to military?”

“So they already delivered the offer”, Norway said with a small nod, “effective and fast. I am pleased.”

“Nore.”

“It is only six months training program. That will not make you a soldier. Not really”, the Norwegian said, “but for the reason. Well. It never hurts to learn how to defend yourself. I picked up that program for you by myself, and you will see that it will teach you many useful things.” Iceland carefully observed his brother’s neutral expression and tried to figure out what the man was thinking. But no matter how hard he tried, he only got the feeling that there was something else going on too. Because he had been feeling like that already for a while, he was just as lost he had been before.

“That is not all”, he muttered, and a small smirk appeared on Norway’s lips.

“True”, he admitted, “do you want me to tell the rest too? I told you, you need to only ask and I will let you know everything.” Iceland hesitated between curiosity and knowing that he would probably be happier if he didn’t know.

“Is it something I should be worried about?” he asked, giving his brother a sharp look.

“Do you think I would ever do anything that would hurt you?” Norway asked back, “or let anything bad to happen to you?”

“No”, Iceland said and nodded, “keep your secrets.”

“You can always call off the bet”, the Norwegian noted, “I will not mind, though I have to admit that I had to work a lot in order to get this possibility for you.” Iceland shrugged, but he knew he wasn’t going to stop now. Maybe Norway would not mind, but Iceland himself would be forever reminded about backing off and for them the forever was a long time.

“I will do it”, he muttered, “maybe it will be even fun.”

“Perfect”, Norway said and smiled before he looked up, “Dan is waking up.” Iceland didn’t bother with asking how he knew the man was waking up when they were in another room and there hadn’t been any noise hinting on that. Sometimes Norway just knew and liked to be a creep like that.

“Go”, he said when the Norwegian walked past him, “go to your wounded lover. You are obsessed over him anyway.”

“I heard that, Is”, Norway replied from the hall.

“Good!” Iceland yelled back and shook his head. When he arrived to the living room after few minutes, he found the Dane full awake and chatting with the Norwegian with a cheerful tone. He didn’t seem to be upset about his wound or what had caused it, but Iceland noted that his hand was still wrapped, and he held it on his lap though his another hand was busy with gesturing something.

“Is!” he yelled when he saw the Icelander, “look what Nor did! He fixed my hand! He loves me!”

“Really?” Iceland muttered with kind of sarcastic tone that was completely missed by the Dane, “please, use your inside voice.”

“But my voice sounds exactly same inside and outside”, Denmark grinned.

“You know what I mean”, the Icelander muttered, and sat down with a deep sight. He didn’t really have time to just sit down, because the sudden coming trip meant he had to deal with lot of things before he left. He wasn’t sure yet in which day he would travel, but he sensed that it would be soon. His assistant was supposed to send him the ticket and info soon.

“So you coming to Nor’s land with me?” Denmark noted, making the Icelander look up and frown.

“I guess so”, he said, “I haven’t got tickets yet.”

“You are on the same flight with Dan”, Norway noted.

“And you know that because…?”

“Because I know”, the Norwegian said with a small smirk, “and my people offered to pay your flight, which means I know everything about it.”

“I wonder”, Iceland said, giving his brother a look he hoped was stern and serious one, “why are you people being so generous for another personification?” Norway smirked, and Iceland knew there was again something he was keeping to himself. He snorted quietly.

“They simply adore things I hold in great value”, the Norwegian replied.

“What is that even supposed to mean?” Iceland asked, and frowned then, “wait, how can you know already when it was just a while ago I told my boss I am agreeing with this and you two have been busy with whatever shady business you are doing in my land?”

“That is an excellent question”, Norway replied, but did not offer the answer. Instead he focused on feeding chocolate pieces to Denmark, which was actually a bit strange now than Iceland thought about it. It made sense to feed somebody that had lost lot of blood, but the Dane had got just a small cut on his hand. That hardly meant he needed any special care, but maybe this was again something Norway liked to do and claim it had nothing to do with his affection toward the Dane. Iceland sighed and hoped his brother would grow up someday.

“Noregur”, he muttered.

“Do you want to know?” The question has started to sound more like a challenge than a real question.

“Not really”, the Icelander muttered, and yawned, “I guess I better to start to work if I want to have everything done in time. You two can stay here and do whatever disgusting things you do to each other.”

“Have fun, Is!” Denmark said, trying to swallow the chocolate before Norway pushed new piece into his mouth. Iceland nodded, but stopped at the door.

“Wait”, he said, “if I am going with Dan, where will you be, Nore?”

“Hm, I have still few things I need to do here”, the Norwegian replied, and glanced up to give the Icelander a soft smile, “do you want to know more now?”

“No”, Iceland shook his head, “you are not going to destroy my land?”

“I will never do anything that could hurt you in any way”, Norway said without any hesitation, “all I do, I do for protecting you, brother of mine. If you tell me to stop or explain, I will do so.” Iceland looked at him, noticing the look he had seen so many times before. Norway was serious.

“Whatever”, he said and turned to walk away, “do what you want, but if anything is messed up when I come back, I will blame you.”

“Of course”, the Norwegian said with amusement in his voice.

****

Why this always happen, Iceland thought and sighed, why I always end up doing stupid things only to prove something that doesn’t even matter? He looked around in the airport terminal, enjoying his last moments in the place where everything was like him. Iceland really didn’t show it outside, but he was really going to miss his land. It made him feel a bit better that this time he would be away only for half year, if he didn’t lose the bet. He wasn’t too worried about that, because how difficult could it be to find one spy? They were just humans after all, and Iceland had advance of several centuries lived with his strange family. It would be easy, and maybe he would even enjoy this weird and sudden break from his normal job.

He worried a bit how the things would go on in his land while he was away, but his boss had been sure about everything being just fine. After all, Norway had very generously promised to act as replacement for Iceland, and if something went wrong they could just call him back. He wasn’t going so far.

Iceland sighed and glanced over his shoulder to check if two older nations were done with their goodbyes already. He wasn’t too surprised to see them still in tight hug and whispering whatever nonsense they whispered to each other at the moment of goodbyes. Iceland sighed again and glanced at the clock. He wondered how Denmark ever managed to make it on the flight in time if he spent this long time only to say goodbye. They would see each other again in week or so anyway, and the Dane was going to fly to Oslo. He was literally not leaving Norway, he was going to Norway. Iceland snickered quietly for his own poor joke and pondered if he felt like he wanted to annoy the Norwegian by saying it out loud.

“Uh, Dan?” Iceland called, giving a pointing look at the screen listing the departing flights when the Dane glanced up. Denmark noticed what he meant, and turned to give the Norwegian a kiss, caressing his cheek before stepping away from the hug.

“See you later”, Norway said and glanced at his impatient brother, “don’t worry, Island, I assure you Danmark is fully capable of taking care of everything related to your study program.”

“Yeah”, the Dane said with a nod, “I know his land, and his _land_.”

“What you even mean… Danmörk”, Iceland said when he realized the man’s poor excuse of joke. Denmark laughed and started to walk toward the gates, but the Icelander glanced at his brother, “out of all the possibilities, you really decided to have him?”

“Yeah, I did”, Norway replied with slightly amused tone, “and it is profitable for me to be with him.”

“Is that how you call ‘being madly in love’ nowadays?” Iceland asked, “you are not fooling anybody, you know.”

“Well”, Norway shrugged, “be nice and enjoy what my country has to offer to you. And while you are in my house, would you remind Dan to not touch the mirrors? The household creatures hate it when he tilts the mirrors.”

“Yeah, sure”, Iceland said, “if this training kills me, it will be your fault.”

“I’ll take the full responsibility of such outcome”, Norway smiled, “but you will be fine. We will see again later, and good luck with finding my spy.” Iceland glanced at him, noticing the smirk on the man’s lips, and he nodded.

“Goodbye, Nore”, he said, “this place better not be in ruins when I return.”

“I promise everything will be just as you left it”, the Norwegian replied.

“And if you see Puffin, tell him about this… all”, the Icelander said quickly and waved his hand before hurrying to the gate. He left so quickly that he didn’t notice the smirk on the Norwegian’s lips.

“I will let him know”, he muttered to himself, “no need to worry about that.”

***

“Dan”, Iceland said when they had been on the flight about an hour already, “what are you doing?” He didn’t worry much about being overheard. After all, the plane was doing so much noise that he barely heard the Dane even when their shoulders were brushing together.

“Nothing”, Denmark said and covered with his hand the paper he had been writing on.

“That didn’t sound suspicious at all”, Iceland muttered.

“Well, do you wanna know?”

“That is Nore’s line.”

“I know, he told me to say that if you ask”, the Dane said and grinned, “so, wanna ya?”

“No”, Iceland replied, and glanced out of the window though all he could see was sky and sea, “remember when you said you were not visiting me for dragging me to Nore’s land?”

“Yeah.”

“You were lying”, Iceland said, but the Dane didn’t stop grinning.

“Not really”, he claimed, “you see, we spoke about dragging you away screaming and kicking, but you came along really willingly. That is the difference.”

“Okay”, Iceland muttered. Denmark seemed to notice his sour mood, because he turned around the paper he was hiding and reached to pet the Icelander’s hair.

“Hey, Is”, he said, leaning closer to make sure the younger nation heard him, “you will do well. You know, Nor and me taught you well back then. It is gonna be just like an update course for you. Like a funny little holiday or something.”

“Maybe”, Iceland sighed, remembering how stressing it had been to first keep his studies as secret a year earlier, “at least this time I don’t need to worry about you two so much.”

“Yeah”, Denmark agreed happily.

“Can you tell me about the place?” Iceland asked.

“The school?” Denmark asked, “yeah, but didn’t you boss already give you all the info?”

“He did, but it was just the basic stuff everybody can find from internet”, the Icelander explained, “it is a Norwegian school. I figured you would know more about it.”

“Yeah, I do”, the Dane said and smirked, “I have studied there too.”

“What?”

“Yeah, they made a special course for Nor about defending the land and surviving worst case scenario crisis as a personification”, Denmark explained, “I asked to be involved too, you know, because defending Nor and his land is important for me too. I want to be able to help if something happens.”

“And they just let you?”

“After some talking, they did”, Denmark said, “Nor liked the idea too. We had lots of fun with all the war games and camping in the forest without any equipment, just two of us and one shared protein bar for dinner…”

“So, about the school?” Iceland quickly interrupted because he knew the Dane well enough to know where this was going to.

“Oh, yeah”, Denmark said and thought for a moment, “it is like any military school. They educate the best the country has, there are strict rules, you will be expected to follow the orders and be respectful toward the ones having higher rank than you have. That means you gotta be respectful toward everybody. They don’t give a shit about you being a personification or that your brother is their very own nation.”

“Makes sense”, Iceland nodded, “so there are people that know the secret?”

“Yeah. Some are so high ranked they know everything”, Denmark nodded, “but don’t try to get them to help you. Nor has explained the plan to them, and they are all really loyal to their own land. They hate me, you know. Dunno why, though, Nor likes me.”

“But if they know, and I am supposed to find one person who knows, can’t I just say I found them?”

“No, Nor is not letting you go so easily”, Denmark said with a grin, “he will send in the rules later. We still got few days before you have to be at the school.”

“Oh great”, Iceland muttered, “wait, I thought I would see him before it starts?”

“Sorry, Is, it will be just me and you”, the Dane said, “he got things to do, you know, with the stuff you don’t want to know about.”

“Okay”, Iceland sighed, “I guess I will see him again then after six months. They don’t allow visitors at school and trainees are not allowed to leave.” Denmark patted his head and smiled.

“It will go okay”, he said, “just half year. You can easily survive that without us.”

“I am more worried about you surviving”, Iceland muttered, “don’t piss off Nore too much.”

“I will try not to”, Denmark laughed, and they fell in silence filled only with the humming noise the plane was doing and faint chatting around. Iceland had worked almost non-stop during the few past days in order to have everything done before he was gone. Not only he had done everything his boss had told him, he had also taken care that all his assistants knew what they were going to do while he was away, and that there was plan for any possible problems they might face. When packing and preparing for the travel was added for that, the Icelander was exhausted. No wonder he started to yawn and look for comfortable position in that small place he was sitting in the plane. This was definitely not the first time he was going to sleep in the plane, but he still always had the same problem with finding position that would not make him dislocate anything and wake up with headache.

Denmark noticed the younger nation’s struggle and moved to sit on the aisle seat that hadn’t been booked by anybody. He lifted the hand rests up, dig a small pillow out of his bag, and patted his lap to show the Icelander what he meant. Iceland nodded, happily accepting the offer for more comfort.

“Nor says this is the best way to sleep in the plane”, Denmark explained when the younger nation curled on the seat, his head on the Dane’s lap and pillow tugged under his neck for support.

“I didn’t know he sleeps in the planes”, Iceland muttered.

“He does”, the Dane said, “you just never sit near us. You said we might be ‘inappropriate’ when put into small place for hours.”

“In my defence”, Iceland muttered, letting the Dane’s familiar, homely presence calm him, “you two are exactly those kind of people who wants to join the mile high club.”

“Silly Island”, Denmark said with amused tone, “that is a life-time club, you only need to join once.”

“Let’s pretend I didn’t hear that or the hinting behind it”, Iceland said after a deep sigh, and he closed his eyes. The sleep seemed to come easily to him this time.

“Rest well”, he heard Denmark saying softly and felt fingers petting his hair, “I will wake you up when we land.”

“Stupid Dane”, Iceland murmured in half sleep, “this is a plane. I will feel when we hit the land.” He heard the Dane laughing.


	3. Fighting secret

 

“Island!” Denmark yelled and barged in to the house with wide smile on his lips, “are you ready?”

“Ready for what?” Iceland asked back, frowning when the Dane sat down on the couch next to him. He had used past few days for mentally preparing for the military course he was going to take, but it wasn’t yet time to be ready for it. He still got two full days before he was supposed to be at the school, and so far it had been quiet and peaceful as the Dane had been outside fixing Norway’s garden. Iceland had had no idea his brother had a garden, but apparently he did because it had kept the Danish nation busy for rather long time.

“Ready to hear the rules!” Denmark said.

“I thought Nore was going to call me or…”

“Yeah, he called me”, Denmark said. Iceland nodded, ignoring the feeling of disappointment. After all, he hadn’t expected or hoped to hear his brother’s voice for the last time before he went into six months isolation with bunch or strange people, or so he told himself.

“Okay”, he muttered, and for once the Dane seemed to not notice the change in the younger nation’s mood because he proceeded to list all the rules instead of focusing on figuring out what was wrong.

“Rule number one: you have 6 month time to find the spy Nor had sent to the school. The spy is aware of you and doing the best they can to not be discovered”, Denmark started to list the rules out of memory, holding up his fingers to keep the count, “second rule: you are not allowed to ask anybody if they know the secret, speak or mention it, or accuse anybody to be the spy.”

“So I will have to act like nobody knows and I am not allowed to confront the suspects?” Iceland asked, and Denmark nodded.

“Yeah”, he continued, “but there are also people in the staff that already know and with them you can speak about us like normally, if they let you know they are in the secret too. The spy is in your team. That is rule number three, actually. And the number four is that you got only one chance to guess correctly. After six months Norway is expecting to hear who you think was the spy. Only one name allowed.”

“Okay”, Iceland said, “that makes sense.”

“Yeah”, Denmark said and clanked at his fingers to check he got everything, “that was the last rule.”

“What happens if I break the rules?” Iceland asked, “and how I can be sure Nore is not cheating? Maybe there is no spy at all.”

“If you break rules, Nor will be automatically declared as the winner. That happens also if you quit the game”, Denmark said and shrugged then, “I guess he will tell you afterwards who is the spy, and his honour would not allow him to cheat with this.”

“He does shady, sneaking things sometimes”, Iceland muttered, remembering the many times the Norwegian had indeed not felt it unhonourable to cheat.

“But he would never cheat on bet”, Denmark noted, “too proud for that. Games, yes. Bets, no.”

“You are right”, Iceland said after brief thinking, “he only cheats in poker games, and sometimes he uses loop holes like his life depends on it, but I have never seen him cheating… Or he just does it so well I haven’t seen it.” Denmark grinned and laughed.

“What if I promise to make sure this is a fair bet?” he asked and got a long look from the Icelander.

“You?” he asked dryly, “how can you do that, when only a look from Nore will make you fall on your knees and beg for him to let you fulfil his every whim?”

“Oh, I didn’t know you know what we do at home!”

“I am not an idiot, Dan”, Iceland said, and snorted when the Dane keep chuckling, “keep yourself together now.”

“Yeah, yeah”, Denmark laughed, “hey, wanna train a little?”

“Train what?” Iceland asked, knowing that with Denmark it was always better to ask few additional questions before agreeing.

“Fighting”, the Dane said, “it has been like a century already since we sparred last time!”

“And that is for a reason.”

“Come on, Isey”, Denmark pleaded, “I wanna see if you still remember things we taught you, and it is a good idea to train a little before you go to that school. You know, for making sure you are in the same level with others.”

“I really doubt I will have any sword play in my curriculum”, Iceland said, but decided to humour the Dane. After all, he had been mostly sitting and reading during the past few days since they had arrived to Norway’s house and some physical training would probably do good. Denmark nodded and got up to fetch swords Norway still kept somewhere in the house, telling the Icelander to change clothes and meet him outside.

When the Dane finally showed up, two light weighted swords with him, Iceland had already used a good time for just sitting on the grass and silently admiring the view. No matter how much he claimed that he didn’t care of his brother’s land, he had to admit that the forest, lake and mountain side bathing in late afternoon sunlight gave him a deep feeling of familiarity and peace. After all, this place had been his home too for a long time.

“Real swords?” Iceland asked when the Dane dropped the weapons on the ground next to him, “where are the protections?”

“Here”, Denmark said and dropped a heavy looking, padded shirt on the swords. Just like swords, the shirt looked like it had been made at least a century ago and lacked all the ergonomic and comfortability the people talked a lot about during modern days.

“Only one?”

“Yeah”, Denmark nodded, “it is not like you will manage hit me anyway.”

“Well, thanks for encouragement”, Iceland said and got up to pull the shirt on himself. He knew very well that in fair fight Denmark would win him in record time. Iceland could maybe defend himself against some people, but the Dane had survived the wild Viking days, took a part in many wars since he had born, and honeyed his skills to perfection for centuries. He even kept them up now when it wasn’t really necessary. He said it was just so he could beat up the Swede.

Iceland didn’t bother with cheating himself with thinking that he hold chance in fight against any of his family members. Once upon time he had sparred with Finland in equal matches, but that had been before the Finnish nation went into any wars and he had surpassed the Icelander long time ago already. Iceland just had never needed to fight, not like they had done, and he held a little interest on such thing.

“You are still fairly good”, Denmark noted, “I bet you would beat up some coward Swedes easily.”

“I am not gonna test that”, Iceland muttered and picked up the sword. The padded shirt was long enough to hang almost down to his knees, and the padding made it quite heavy to wear, but he tested his balance and movements with few easy positions. The shirt didn’t hinder him too much, and Denmark nodded happily when he saw the Icelander still remembered something from the lessons long ago.

“I thought we can just start easy and go up from there”, the Dane said, picking up the other sword, “I want to see exactly where your skills are right now.”

“You will be disappointed”, Iceland muttered, “my skills are quite low.”

“We will see”, the Dane smirked, “stop putting yourself down.”

“You were the one saying I will not able to give any hits anyway”, Iceland noted.

“Well, prove me wrong”, Denmark said, and gently hit the Icelander’s sword with his own. Iceland knew what he was after. Denmark’s favourite way to start sparring, or full blow fight in some cases, was to provoke his opponent. Iceland had seen him successfully doing that several times with Norway, Sweden and even Finland now and then. He was also rather skilful with that, so even if Iceland knew the trick, it somehow worked. The Icelander took a better hold on the sword and stood ready.

It started with few lazy swings, and the Dane holding back his strength. Iceland rolled his eyes and easily blocked the attacks.

“Really, Dane?” he asked when Denmark was using ridiculous lot of time to move, almost mocking the Icelander. He grinned and picked up the speed. Soon Iceland had to work to keep the Dane’s sword away, and still it hit him few times. Though Denmark was pushing him now, he still took care that his sword hit the Icelander only on the padded areas and always the blade flat. It still hurt to get hit, the Dane couldn’t slow down enough, and few times Iceland flinched from the sharp pain but kept going anyway. It wasn’t because he wanted to show Denmark and impress him. It was just that he was an adult, and adults were capable to hold on. Or so Iceland told himself.

He didn’t really know how much time had passed, and it was hard to say when the sunlight lasted long during summer days, but he could feel his muscles aching and he wondered if he had already sweated out all the water in his body. Denmark didn’t show any signs of getting tired, but then again Iceland didn’t really have time to look at him close enough. It was getting harder to block the hits and the sword seemed to be heavier in his hands. Just like Denmark had said, so far Iceland hadn’t manage to hit the older nation and it looked like he never would. The Dane moved faster and hit harder, while Iceland’s arms started to shake under the pressure. He was going to tell the Dane stop, that he was too tired to keep going anymore, but his body betrayed him before he got the words out. Instead of holding his sword up to block the coming blade, his arm dropped and let the attack come. He gasped and fell down when Denmark’s sword cut his cheek.

“Island!” Denmark screamed and dropped the blood-stained blade, “Island…”

“I am okay”, Iceland muttered, but that didn’t stop the Dane kneeling down and checking the cut. Luckily, he hadn’t put too much power on the hit, and Iceland had moved away just slightly, so the sword had only cut a fine cut with the length of his little finger on his cheek. He moved his tongue carefully, checking if the cut was deep enough to be through his cheek.

“I am so sorry”, Denmark whispered, repeating it few times while he held the Icelander on the ground and swept away the blood so well he just could, “I didn’t mean to…”

“It is healing already”, Iceland muttered, but Denmark seemed to understand his exhaustion and shaking limbs for something else than simple results from heavy sparring. Before Iceland realized what was happening, he had been scooped up from the ground and the Dane was carrying him back inside. He yelled and gave the man an angry look.

“Put me back down”, he demanded, “it is just a cut. In half hour it will look like it never even existed.”

“Yeah, I am sorry”, Denmark muttered, and smiled though he looked still shaken up. Out of them two it really looked he was the one panicking. Iceland sighed and let the Dane dotting over him, remembering what Norway had said when patching up the Dane. Iceland himself would have just clean off the blood, and carry on, but Denmark seemed to calm down when he was allowed to play nurse.

“Okay, you are all patched up now!” Denmark finally said and sat down to see his work, “do you want anything? Drink? Food?”

“I am fine, Dan, thanks”, Iceland muttered, his voice coming out with slightly blurred because of the patch on his cheek. The cut hasn’t even been bleeding anymore, but that hadn’t stop the Dane.

“You sure?”

“Yeah”, Iceland nodded, “for ex-Viking, you are surprisingly sensitive about little cuts.” Now Denmark smiled, and reached to ruffle the Icelander’s hair.

“It is about showing that I care”, he said softly, not knowing the Norwegian nation had said exactly same just few days ago, “and I am really sorry. I should have never even done anything that puts you in risk to get hurt.”

“I am not a baby, you know”, Iceland said, “and I am an immortal anyway.”

“Still.”

“Dan?”

“Hm?” Denmark had settled down on the couch, clearly not caring about how much they were smelling after training, and he glanced at the Icelander again.

“You looked confused after I got hurt”, Iceland said, “why that?” Denmark frowned first, but then he laughed, shaking his head a bit.

“You really share some things with Nor”, he said, “being observing and all.”

“Sure”, Iceland muttered.

“Well, the thing was that I… Um…”, the Dane said and thought for a moment, “I kinda got lost in my thoughts for a moment during the sparring and… I thought I was with Nor.”

“You mistook me for my brother?” Iceland asked with a frown, “in daylight and mid of training?”

“I told you, I got lost”, Denmark defended himself, “and you two look alike!”

“No, we do not.”

“There are similarities!” Iceland snorted and gave the Dane a look before just shrugging slightly.

“At least that explains why you looked so confused”, he muttered, “Nore would have been able to block that hit.”

“Well, yeah”, Denmark said, sounding embarrassed, “I am just glad you didn’t got hurt more. I don’t hold myself back when I spar with Nor.”

“Because he is strong enough to win?”

“No, and yes”, the Dane said and smirked slightly, “I did try to be easy with him first times, but he told me to stop that.”

“I can’t even imagine you obeying with simply ‘telling you to stop’”, Iceland pointed out, “not even when it is him telling you that.”

“Well, he stabbed a spear into my shoulder and told me to give my best or he would kill me next time”, Denmark said, “I really thought he would kill me. That gave me some extra motivation for sparring.”

“When did that happen?” Iceland asked, surprised to hear his brother threating the Dane like that.

“Oh, it was long time ago. Before Viking times”, he said, “Nor was different back then. Wilder. A bit angrier. Even colder, maybe.”

“And you still stayed around him even when you thought he could kill you?” Iceland asked, “you really were dump already back then.”

“Hey, I didn’t have much choices! It was either him or Sve”, Denmark joked, “and he was okay outside sparring. Always had my back when we got into a real fight, and that threatening just made me develop my skills faster. I think I just fell in love with him from the first threat.”

“You two are so damn weird”, Iceland muttered, but the Dane only laughed for his comment.

“Enjoy my weirdness so long you can, then”, he said, “because when Nor hears I hurt you…”

“It was an accident.”

“That I caused”, Denmark said, “well, it was a good life.”

“Just a small cut”, Iceland said, “and he doesn’t even know about it. I will not tell.”

“Is, we are in his house”, Denmark noted, “he will hear about it right when he takes the first step in his land.” Iceland glanced around quickly, noting that the Dane was right. The creatures living nearby would never keep quiet about this.

“Well”, he said, “it was nice to know you.”

“Yeah.”

*****

“So here we are”, Denmark said, thought it was kind of pointless when Iceland could see the facts himself, “this is the furthest I can follow you, so you are on your own now on.” Iceland nodded, looking at the gates with the familiar coat of arms decorating them. He had spent the previous day mostly just packing and mentally preparing himself, but though his suitcase was neatly organized with all the essentials Denmark had pushed at him, his mental state wasn’t quite ready. He sighed deeply.

“Okay.”

“Don’t look like that! You will have fun”, Denmark said, “see you later!”

“Yeah, see you”, Iceland muttered and then added with slight hesitation, “tell greetings to Nore.”

“I will”, the Dane smiled and went back to car. He waved to the Icelander last time, showed thumb ups and then he drove away. Iceland sighed again, but there wasn’t really going back anymore, so he picked up his suitcase and walked to the gate.


	4. Team secret

His entrance was followed by two military officers in duty checking his background info and going into the normal routine that Iceland faced every time he showed his ID anywhere. Luckily his arrival had been planned this time, so he had to wait only a half hour and answer for few confused questions before he was fetched by another officer. She was acting highly formal and seemed to have no interest on small talk, so Iceland set to quietly follow her. He was actually glad about the distance the woman was putting between them, because that allowed him to collect his thoughts and look around without distraction.

He had done his homework about the school, so he knew there were normal military educations going on and what the school usually served for. He also knew the program he was in was not normal one, but specially made for officers applying for the higher ranks. Normally, that would have been a problem for Iceland who didn’t hold any military rank so far, but there were many good sides on being a personification and having a brother who liked to mess up with everything.

“We are here”, the woman whose name Iceland did not know, said and gestured toward room, “this is where your team is accommodated. There will be an info meeting later today, but until that there is nothing scheduled for you. Feel free to settle down and meet your team mates.”

“Thank you”, Iceland said with a nod. The woman gave him the last glance but walked away with only a slight nod as goodbye. The Icelander wasn’t too worried about the cold first impression. After all, he wasn’t really expected to make friends and get all comfortable in the military environment. He was there only to survive the six months, so he could make his brother to shut up and admit he wasn’t a child anyway.

Although, Norway had never said Iceland was a child. Iceland knew that, but he needed something to fuel him to go forward and blaming the Norwegian was sufficient for that. He knew this was a bad idea.

“Oh, hey!” a voice said just a moment after Iceland stepped into room, and the nation saw a tall woman approaching him, “Sigrid Fredheim, nice to meet you.”

“Eiríkur Andersen”, Iceland replied and took the offered hand. The woman seemed to be a complete opposite to the one Iceland had followed just a moment ago. She also had the straight posture and serious look that seemed to be typical for anybody working within military, but her lips were still tilted up for a smile.

“Nice to have you in the team”, Sigrid said and looked over her shoulder, “Anna! Come to say hi to new guy.”

“We are supposed to call each other with our surnames, Fredheim, and we are all ‘new guys’ here”, another woman said and appeared from behind the bunk beds, “however, nice to meet you… Andersen, wasn’t it?”

“Correct”, Iceland replied, “and you…?”

“Anna Kristensen”, the woman replied.

“Nice to meet you”, Iceland muttered and looked around in the room. It wasn’t really a luxury accommodation, but kind of comfy anyway. He could count five bunk beds neatly arranged in row, so there was enough place for ten people to sleep in. Every bed had same light blue bed sheets, small lamps, and metal closets standing next to them. Curtains on the window were also a shade of blue, but that was the only thing possibly counted as a decoration in that room. The tile floors were bare, and walls painted white that made the room look just a bit too official and serious. Some beds were clearly already taken because there were different sets of clothes laid on them, but many were still empty too.

“I…”, Iceland started, but he was interrupted by a door slammed open.

“Ugh, is this team alpha Viking room?” a young-looking man asked with a clear frustration in his voice. The women glanced up and nodded, while Iceland wondered quietly who had decided to call the team alpha Viking. That sounded something Finland would come up with, he thought and sighed quietly.

“Great”, the man said, his mood turning better right away, “I have been so lost. I am Jørgen Thorsen, from the air force.” The round of presentations went through again, and Sigrid started to chat with the man while Anna went back to get her bed and personal equipment in order. Iceland looked around and walked to the back corner, claiming an empty bed there as his. He started to empty his suitcase, that wasn’t really full to begin with, and paid only half of the attention to the people arriving. He didn’t even glance up until he noticed that the talking in the room had got clearly quieter and there was a weird, pressing feeling around. It felt like everybody was nervously waiting for something.

He glanced around and noticed that the amount of people in the room had increased to nine. He guessed that this was his whole team, as there wasn’t going to be any more available beds in the room, and with some curiosity he observed the humans. Most of them were males, but Anna and Sigrid had got third woman in the group too. Iceland couldn’t really point out anything specific, for him everybody seemed to be around their mid-thirties and looking exactly like military officers were supposed to look. The image got a bit stronger with those that had already change into their uniforms with their specific ranks showing on their ribbons, but even the ones with civil clothes had their serious aura that didn’t completely vanish even when they smiled and small talked. It didn’t surprise the Iceland much. After all, these people were selected to a special program. They were the best the Norwegian military had, and they had earned their place.

After few moments, Iceland spotted bit older looking man sitting on the lonely chair by the door. He looked like he didn’t completely belong to the group, Iceland assumed it was because he was clearly older than others. As an immortal personification, Iceland had never got good with estimating human’s age, but he guessed the sitting man was around his fifties. He had also rather soft look behind his serious façade, and he looked like he would have made a good grandpa. Maybe he even was one already.

Most of the other humans in the room seemed to also pay lot of attention on the older man, and even giving him shy glances. First the man seemed to not notice that at all, but when few minutes had passed, he frowned.

“In case you thought I am the team leader”, he said with a strong, but friendly tone, “I am not. Name is Ola Nordmann. I am just a team mate of yours.” His words were met with some embarrassed looks and laughs, that confirmed that he had guessed the reason of looks correctly.

“Ola Nordmann!” Jørgen said with a joyful tone, “we have Norway himself among us?”

Oh, you have no idea, Iceland thought dryly. Norway himself was unfortunately too busy to join them because he was probably causing havoc in another land right now. But no problem, he sent his brother instead.

“Heh, almost but no”, Ola replied, “I am just a normal Norwegian just like all of us.”

“I am actually a half-Dane”, one of the other men said with a small smile.

“So we have a spy among us?”

“No, my loyalties lay within Norway”, the man replied, “and Lars here just told me he is even more Nordic than I am.” He pointed to his left at the man, who seemed to be slightly embarrassed about getting so much attention all of sudden.

“It is Lars-Emil actually”, he noted, “or just Nyqvist. I got Finnish and Swedish relatives. Not a spy.”

“I am pretty sure other Nordics would not be interested about taking over Norway anyway”, Sigrid noted, “and sending spies would be useless. We share lot of information in official ways already.” There were nods and murmured agrees, and Iceland quietly thought what his family would say about that statement. Mostly they would be proud about the current situation between their lands, but Iceland couldn’t get rid of the haunting feeling of Denmark making some rather nasty and poor jokes about “taking over Norway”. That man got the mind of teenager sometimes.

“I guess I can admit then that I am an Icelander”, a man said from the side, and Iceland’s eyes quickly moved on him, “also, kinda loyal to my own homeland.”

“Oh, I wondered if we were gonna get any Icelanders”, the half Dane from earlier said, “I had few in my team few years ago.” Iceland stayed quiet but observed the Icelandic man with a great curiosity. For sure he hadn’t expected to meet one of his own people, and the sudden moment made his mood clearly better. He had always been protective and loyal to those who were his, but now that there was only one man claiming to be an Icelander, he felt the connection much stronger.

“I was sure I would be only one”, he said softly in Icelandic, noticing that the man startled before smiling. The humans had started to talk again, and only few briefly glanced at the Icelanders before continuing their own topics. Iceland noted one man, who hadn’t yet introduced himself, giving some curious looks and listening like he struggled with understanding but was too shy to ask the questions he was probably thinking about. The behaviour confused the Icelandic nation, but because the man didn’t make any gesture on wanting to join in the conversation with Icelanders, he ignored him.

“I thought so too”, he replied and turned to look at Iceland, “I haven’t heard Icelandic for a while. Feels nice to speak it again.” Iceland nodded for agreement. It indeed felt nice to talk in one’s own language.

“I am Eiríkur”, Iceland said.

“Freyr Valdórsson”, the man replied, and frowned then, “have I met you before? There is something really familiar in you.” Iceland wasn’t surprised to hear that. After all, it was common for humans to recognize their homeland in some level, although most of times it seemed to just give them faint feeling of familiarity and unexplained tendency to trust. Iceland had had humans spilling their all secrets on him after just a short meeting.

“Maybe”, Iceland said, “there aren’t so many of us.” Freyr laughed at his joke and nodded shortly.

“True”, he said, “we could be little cousins or something.” Iceland laughed with the man and they got some curious looks from others. There would have been questions too if the door hadn’t opened just then and efficiently cut off all the conversations.

“Good afternoon, team”, the man stepping in said in serious tone and let the door close behind him, “I am captain Thomassen, and I have the honour to be your team leader for this program.” The atmosphere in the room changed immediately, when everybody took a position. Iceland followed the lead, desperate to not gain any unwanted attention by being the weird one of the lot.

“Stand easy”, the lieutenant said and opened the folder he had been carrying, “the real drill starts tomorrow. Here I have the schedule for you.” He took a paper out from the folder and simply taped it on the wall next to door. Then he proceeded to tell them about the program, using sharp tone that was easy to hear, and explain everything shortly and logically. He didn’t seem to want to waste time with the team, so only after twenty minutes he asked if anybody got questions, and after receiving negative answer he left. The folder remained on the table, so they could read more about the basic things like where to do laundry and when cafeteria was open.

“The team leader seems to be nice”, Iceland overheard Sigrid noting when they were all settling down for the night, “I think I have met him before.”

“He usually serves on field”, Jørgen pipped in, “you know, Nato troops. I heard he was moved back to Norway just few months ago and asked to take a position here.”

“I heard he wanted to come back”, a man whose name Iceland hadn’t hear yet, said when he walked past to get his bag, “wife got pregnant and he wanted to be closer to family.”

“That is a good reason”, the half Dane noted. Iceland reminded himself to ask the names later. Not that he was looking forward getting closer to anybody, but he was supposed to live with this team for the next six months and he didn’t want to be stuck with calling people by strange made up names. Iceland sighed quietly and decided to take on socializing another day, because he was tired.

After the lights went off and even the most talkative one shut up, Iceland laid on his bed and stared up to ceiling. The bed felt weird and he was disturbed by having so many strangers sleeping close to him. The air smelt bit too much like a soap and chemicals used to disinfect it, the room was just a bit too warm, and the air condition did weird humming sound. Even the sheets felt weird, and Iceland had to restrain himself from rolling around too much. Finally, he managed to settle on somewhat comfortable position on his back against the wall and the blanket wrapped around his body. He still didn’t feel the sleep coming and ended up listening the deep breathing around him. He refused to admit that the utter feeling of loneliness came from the lack of another personification’s presence near him. Surely, he was not missing anybody.


	5. Serious secret

“Didn’t get much slept last night?” a female voice asked, and Iceland glanced up to see the third woman of the team looking at him with an expression mix of sympathy and curiosity on her face. It was actually already fifth night without much sleep for the Icelandic nation, and he was starting to get grumpy because of it.

“Just not used to sleep in the same room with so many strangers”, he muttered, and the woman nodded.

“I used to have the same problem”, she said, “but after while I got adjusted for it so well that now I can’t sleep alone anymore.” Iceland nodded, though he was quite sure he wasn’t going to get used for the current situation. He never had problems to sleep in the same room with his family, so in truth he believed the problem laid somewhere else.

“My name is Kjerstina”, the woman said with a smile, “or in case Anna is around, it is Solheim.”

“Eiríkur”, Iceland muttered the name he was using. Kjerstina seemed to be one of those people who didn’t mind when somebody wasn’t in social mood, because she kept walking next the nation without looking pissed off.

“You are the second Icelander then”, she noted, and Iceland briefly wondered how he had ended up being the _second,_ “it has to be hard to be away your homeland.”

“It is not that bad”, Iceland replied with a shrug, “I have relatives here, too.”

“Oh, that is good. I thought you speak really good Norwegian”, Kjerstina noted.

“Yeah, my adopted brother is a Norwegian”, Iceland said, feeling childish joy for having his pity revenge by claiming that Norway wasn’t his real brother, “he taught me.”

“I see”, Kjerstina muttered and swiftly changed the topic, “I wonder what we will have for lunch today. Jens was betting on pasta.”

“Jens?”

“The half-Dane”, Kjerstina said and smirked, “I am happy to know I am not the only one getting names messed up.” Iceland shrugged and muttered something nonsense with barely audible voice. Kjerstina seemed to finally either catch on his unwillingness to chat or got enough of having not much response, because she moved toward to talk with Jørgen and few others. Iceland didn’t mind much, he only followed them to the cafeteria and routinely picked up lunch before sitting down on the exact same chair he had used since the first day.  The rest of team took their places around the cafeteria, everybody staying in small groups.

The first week had been harsh for the Icelander. Not only because of his problems with sleeping, but he also found it hard to adjust to the new life style filled with training and protocol. It didn’t help at all that he had his own secrets to keep and his team mates had background within military, something that Iceland did not have. He still managed somehow with everything he had learnt during his long life and extraordinary career, so he didn’t look too weird among others. He still used lot of energy and effort to mimic others, so he wouldn’t look like an idiot.

So far, the days had been filled up with different lessons on leadership and managing special situations. First Iceland hadn’t paid too much attention, but soon he found himself listening just as eagerly as others though he stayed out of the discussions. He had to admit that Norway had picked up the program well, as there was lot of things Iceland realized could help him with his real job and he found himself thinking how he could use his new knowledge in the best way.

“Hey, young man”, a voice suddenly said, startling the nation from his thoughts, “is this seat available?”

“Sure”, Iceland muttered and continued eating while Ola sat down. The human man seemed to be in good mood and hummed quietly when he re-organized the items on his tray. When he got everything in good order, he picked up the salad bowl and nodded when the food turned out to fulfil his demands on salad’s taste.

“Nice lunch today”, he noted.

“Yeah”, Iceland replied.

“You don’t eat much, don’t you?” Ola asked, and the Icelander frowned slightly before nodding. He tended to eat less than humans usually, but it had never been an issue. He still made a mental note to pay more attention on how much others were eating. He didn’t want to be the weird one of the lot.

“Slow metabolism”, he offered as an explanation, “I don’t need much.” Ola nodded and smiled.

“My wife would say otherwise”, he noted, “and cook you more food than you have ever seen.” Iceland didn’t really know how to reply for that, so he only shrugged and focused on his lunch. Ola seemed to not mind, because his mood stayed just as good it had been all day.

“All okay with you?” he suddenly said after they had ended up having a comfortable silence between them. Again Iceland frowned, not knowing why the man was asking about his wellbeing when they were not even familiar with each other.

“Yes”, he said, “why?”

“You just look a bit tired”, Ola explained himself, “and you are quiet. I thought I should ask at least.” Iceland blinked, and still wondered why. He would have expected Norway or Denmark worry about him, but Ola was just a team mate. This was the first time they even talked directly to each other.

“It just takes me bit of time to adjust”, he muttered, “that’s all.” The man nodded and picked up the piece of apple pie he had for desert.

“You seem to be young”, he noted.

“I am 22”, Iceland lied just as he had told to do, “I just look younger.”

“I know lot of people who would be ready to kill to have that ability”, Ola joked and laughed.

“It is just genes”, Iceland muttered, “everybody in my family looks younger.” That wasn’t even a lie. None of them looked like over thousand years old. Iceland used a brief moment to think how Denmark would look like as an old grandpa. The idiot would probably still try to pick up fights and be all over the place, the Icelander sniggered.

“Funny thought?” Ola asked, clearly amused about the sudden change on Iceland’s emotional state.

“Just thinking about my brother”, Iceland replied.

“Oh, I also laugh when I think my brother”, Ola said with a firm nod, “such a loser. Gives me good laughs now and then.” Iceland glanced at the man, but quickly noticed that he was just joking.

“I have four”, he said, “I get lots of laughs.”

“Oi”, Ola said with a small head shake, “how can you even survive with four brothers?”

“I have no idea”, Iceland said.

“What you think about our program?” Ola suddenly changed the topic.

“It is fine”, Iceland said with a slight shrug, “pretty much what I was told it will be.”

“I couldn’t say it any better”, Ola nodded, “team leader is quite excited about this all too, I would say.” Iceland let a small smile slip on his lips when he thought about the man that had took his apparently first educational team leader position with a mix of serious professionality and almost child-like joy over the team’s work. As a team leader, he was not really lecturing or keeping lessons about anything but that didn’t stop him sharing his knowledge about pretty much anything while doing his original tasks. It had taken only few days for the whole team to decide their leader was the best in the entire world, and they were happy to have him in the team.

“I guess”, Iceland muttered and looked around the hall. He had already finished his meal, that had been clearly smaller than other had took, but he felt it would have been too rude to leave when Ola had sacrificed the company of others for talking with the quiet nation. Actually, Iceland realized that was quite weird. The others were sitting just one table away and they had empty seats at their table. He had seen Ola talking and sitting with others everyday and he had got a feeling that the man liked to have company around him. Why would he had decided to change his seat just today all of sudden?

“Ola, why…”

“Andersen!” a sharp voice said, and Iceland almost flinched before turning to see the stern looking woman who had met him on his first day. Ola was just a bit faster with getting up and saluting to the women with higher ranking.

“Yes, ma’am”, Iceland said, keeping his posture straight and tone neutral.

“You have been asked to arrive for an appointment with colonel Ødegård”, the woman, who Iceland had learnt to know by name sergeant Rønning, said and with a small gesture advised the Icelander to follow her. Iceland had been at the school long enough to not question such orders, no matter how much he thought it was weird that he was wanted for an appointment right now, so he hurried to take his tray away and follow the sergeant. Ola offered him a small nod for goodbye, and Iceland reminded himself to ask his questions later.

Just like last time, sergeant Rønning didn’t made any attempt for social behaviour while leading the nation through the hallways. In fact, she looked like she wanted to be somewhere else, and Iceland would have not been surprised to learn that only the military profession and years of training kept her voicing her opinions out loud and just leaving. He wasn’t sure if he was the reason for the woman’s mood, but he didn’t dare to ask. It took them ten minutes to reach the office room in the building Iceland had never been in, and with another quiet gesture the woman let him know that he should go in.

Iceland of course knew who colonel Ødegård was. After all, he was not stupid enough to go into completely new place and accept the challenge without taking care he knew all the info available. Colonel Ødegård was the leader of the school, an officer close to her fiftieth birthday and with a good amount of respect from others. Her position was so secured that so far Iceland hadn’t heard any rumours of her, although everybody else in high ranks had got their shared amounts of gossip time during the free evenings.

And now, when Iceland looked at the colonel in the eyes, he realized he had seen that look before many times, always on the faces of men and women who ended up reaching higher than others. This was a woman who would not hesitate to take the lead and, if the time to fight ever came during her days, she would stand up. She had gone through a lot and ended up as the winner. One look, and Iceland knew she was one of his brother’s trusted persons and so has also earnt the respect of the Norwegian nation.

“You called for me, ma’am”, Iceland said and saluted with some true respect for once.

“Yes, I did”, she replied and observed the nation with sharp look, “so you are the personification of the republic of Iceland.” It wasn’t a question, but Iceland nodded.

“Yes, I am, ma’am.”

“You may stand easy”, the colonel said, giving the nation one more observing looks. Iceland wasn’t sure what she was trying to figure out, and she didn’t show any signs of specific thoughts, “I have to admit that I was rather surprised when this… Case was presented to me.”

“You mean me being here?”

“Yes”, the woman said with a short nod, “and that your kind plays games like this.”

“This is actually strange even…” Iceland started, but the colonel continued before he managed to finish.

“I have my doubts about this”, she said with her straight forward style, “and I am still not fully persuaded to believe this is a good idea, but my duty is to serve the land and if the land himself ask a favour from me I am more than happy to fulfil it.”

“I see”, Iceland muttered softly. Denmark had clearly not lied about people being loyal to Norway. He was suddenly happy to be in Norway’s good side. It would not be fun to get in argument with the colonel.

“But I want to let you know”, the woman said with a strong tone and sighing once between the words, “that no matter of your position or the fact that you are his brother, nobody has ever left this school without reaching the demanded limits and earning their status. You are not an exception here. Do you understand this?”

“Yes, ma’am”, Iceland replied, remembering that the Dane had also mentioned about being not very liked around Norwegian military officers. He wondered if he had also made it into the black list, though he had never made anything bad for Norway. It was actually another way around; the Norwegian was one stalking his things.

“Good”, the colonel said, “I will keep you on eye, so you better do only the best you can. No lacking here.”

“Of course, ma’am”, Iceland said. The woman gave him las sharp look and nodded then.

“You are dismissed”, she said. Iceland saluted and left. Sergeant Rønning hadn’t wait for him to be done with the appointment, but that was fine. The Icelander was sure he would find his way back to the team room. In fact, he wasn’t even thinking about that. His thoughts were busy with wondering if the colonel had just somehow threatened him. Somehow it felt like a threat, but just different kind of, and he wasn’t sure what it meant.

Iceland shrugged and pushed the question out of his mind after a while. He had already other problems to solve, and he didn’t need to have more.

*****

Denmark easily spotted Iceland’s car, and smiled when he saw the man sitting on the driver’s seat. He started to walk just a bit faster, jumping over the street linings and keeping his eyes on his destination. Norway seemed to be in deep in his thoughts, but that didn’t hinder the Dane who quickly threw his bag in the back seat, and the slid in to the car. He didn’t bother with the safety belt but leaned toward the Norwegian. He wanted to give a greeting kiss on the cheek, but it was Norway who turned his head, so their lips met instead. Denmark wasn’t complaining about the sudden change in his plan, and he hummed happily when the kiss deepened just a little more and fingers petted his hair.

“Missed me, didn’t you?” he asked when Norway leaned back.

“Isn’t the message clear?” Norway asked back, and smirked when Denmark laughed for his more and less cryptid answer, “thank you for coming over here so quickly.”

“Anything for you”, the Dane replied, “I would have been here earlier, but had to make a quick run to Copenhagen.”

“It is okay”, Norway said.

“You found something, right?” Denmark asked, “that is why you didn’t come back home.”

“Yes”, the Norwegian nodded and started the car.

“Is it serious?” the Dane asked with hint of worry in his voice, “or very serious?”

“It is something that can become very serious matter”, Norway replied and sighed, “you were right, something is going on.” Denmark nodded, his smile changing to serious look.

“I hope I would have been wrong about it”, he said, “you got a plan already?”

“Yeah”, the Norwegian said, “first, we gotta catch the bird.”

“Perfect”, Denmark grinned, “I like that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What you think? Will Iceland manage to get on colonel Ødegård's good side? What was Denmark right about, and what are he and Norway planning now? Feel free to come over to my tumblr blog (link on profile) for speculating and asking questions :)


	6. Puffin's secret

“What you mean?” Iceland asked few days later and frowned at the team mates talking to him.

“We got the code 048A”, Sigrid repeated with an excited tone. It wasn’t hard to notice that she really liked the code 048A.

“Yeah I got that”, Iceland said, “what it means?” He felt like he should have really known it, because nobody else was asking. After their team leader had showed up to tell it, and disappear just as fast right after, they had started to prepare, and everybody seemed to be more and less excited. That meant that Sigrid and Anna presented opposite extremes, one hardly holding her excitement and another taking the news with pure dutiful attitude and calmness. Everybody else settle between that, except the Icelandic nation who was just confused.

“That means we are going to have over-night field training”, Jørgen explained, “you didn’t have those in your previous team?”

“Not really”, Iceland muttered, suddenly remembering what Denmark had said. The Dane had liked that kind of training, and the Icelander tried his best to not think it too much. He did so just because he didn’t want to think about the real reasons for Dane’s opinions, he was not missing the others at all.

“Only the code 0001A would make Sigrid happier”, Anna noted and continued her well organized packing.

“That is the royal attending”, Jørgen said and Iceland nodded, thankful about hearing that before he had to ask.

“I hope we will not get that one”, he muttered, and few of the humans laughed and nodded for agreement. He even heard one noting that the royal attendings were always so overly official that he felt uncomfortable, and that seemed to be popular opinion. Iceland didn’t bother with mentioning that his dislike about the idea came from the fact that his brother would be present too. There was no way the Norwegian royal family would be doing anything important without their personification sneaking around nearby, and even if that wasn’t enough for getting the Norwegian man interested, he would for sure to show up to see his brother suffering. Or so Iceland thought.

Iceland turned to prepare his bag, carefully following the guidelines he had got some days ago about the different type of gears. For others such a lesson had been just boring repeat, but Iceland had taken it as another chance to quickly learn what he was already supposed to know but actually did not. They had actually had rather lot of lessons about just repeating basic things, and the Icelander had started to think those were just hid there for him. Why else all that basic info had been pushed between the lessons and cut in small parts, so nobody would even notice? He was the only one who didn’t really have a military background.

Unless the spy was also newbie, Iceland thought but quickly declined the idea. Norway would not be dumb enough to send in somebody that had no idea about what they were pretending to be. No, this wasn’t going to be so easy for Iceland, although he still took a look around to see if anybody was hesitating or showing any signs of being unsure about what was happening. But just as he had thought, everybody was going on with their tasks just like they knew exactly what they were doing. Iceland shook his head and focused to double check he had got everything he needed to pack.

“Hey, team!” the captain said when he stepped into the room, for a moment dropping the official behaviour for favour to show his excitement, “are you all ready with the preparations?” The team, that had not followed their captain’s example of informal greeting, stood on line and gave the sharp “yes, sir” as a reply. The captain Thomassen nodded, clearly satisfied of what he heard.

“As you have probably already understood, we are going to have a field training”, he said, pulling out few papers from his back pocket, “in other words, we will play out a real possible situation. This time it will be saving a wounded team mate -case. Kristensen!”

“Yes, sir!” Anna said quickly.

“You will be the team leader for the exercise”, captain said. Anna didn’t show her feelings, just like she rarely seemed to do, but Iceland got a feeling that she was rather pleased to get the responsible role. Captain Thomassen continued to give out the roles, and Iceland noted that actually they were forming two separated groups. Some of them were going to play out the exercise while others stayed in another camp with the captain and another trainer, called sergeant Holms. They would follow the exercise and do more tactical work with estimating the case group’s chances and planning out possible results for if the case was real.

“Andersen”, the captain said, getting the nation’s attention quickly, “you will have the unfortunate role to be the wounded soldier in distress. Have you all understood your roles?” Once again the row of “yes,sir” followed, and Iceland replied so too. He didn’t really know if he had understood, but he trusted on himself to figure it out in time.

*****

It turned out being the soldier in distress was most boring part of the exercise. Iceland sneezed, and quickly swiped water off his face, trying to do it as secretly as possible because he was supposed to be fatally wounded and able to only lay down and miserably groan for pain now and then. That was also a good role for the Icelander as it gave him a chance to not know anything without giving away his non-existing military background, but after few first hours Iceland had to admit that he was bored. It didn’t help at all that the weather had been miserable since the beginning and as a soldier in distress, Iceland could only rely on his team to take care of him. He was already catching cold, and that was quite strange thing to happen to him without an economical problem.

“You doing fine down there?” Sigrid asked, and Iceland showed a quick thumb up. He had been laid down on the ground while the others did the camp. It was boring and awkward to be first dragged around in forest and then let to just lay there while others worked, but that was the idea of the exercise.

“Fredheim! Are the food portions prepared?” Anna asked with the commanding tone she had adapted for her role.

“I am on it!” Sigrid replied and gave the Icelander a quick smile before going for her duties. Totally they had five members in the team. Beside Iceland, Anna and Sigrid, also Lars-Emil and Freyr had got selected. So far, they had worked together fine enough, although Iceland had noted Freyr disagree with Anna’s commands few times. Still, he followed like he was supposed.

“We take a break now”, Anna said after a few minutes, “Andersen, feel free to get up.” Iceland nodded and quickly got up from the ground. Although they were following the training plan with strict rules, they were allowed to have few breaks per day. For Iceland that was good because he really didn’t want to have help with eating or going to toilet.

“Here is your meal”, Freyr said when he saw the Icelandic personification returning from the forest, and patted the trunk he was sitting on, “here, have a seat”

“Thanks”, Iceland muttered and accepted both, the food and sitting place. Anna, Sigrid and Lars-Emil were discussing about their next move, but apparently Freyr had decided to stay out because he had taken a place from other side of the camp.

“Getting bored with being idle?” Freyr asked, switching to Icelandic now that nobody else was talking with them. Iceland nodded.

“Yeah”, he muttered, “not really enjoying the raining either.” Freyr laughed softly.

“It’s typical”, he said, “there will always be the worst weather when you get field exercise. Trainers love that, you know, makes you stronger and face the harsh reality of military work.”

“I can imagine”, Iceland said, and hesitated just a moment before continuing, “I have been wondering… How ended up you here? It is not the most common for Icelander to….” He struggled with finding the right words, but it seemed like this wasn’t the first time Freyr heard the question because he caught on anyway.

“It started with just me wanting to have an adventure”, he said with a small smile on his lips, “I was young and wanted to see some world, but I had no idea how. My mother knew somebody whose son had also went to Norway to get the training, so I figured I could do same. Took me few months to realize I had found my calling.”

“Sounds nice”, Iceland said, and Freyr nodded.

“Been harsh life, but I enjoy it”, he said, “I did few years in navy before applying to this program. I am still planning to return home, maybe join the coast guards, but I feel like I am not done with adventuring yet.” Iceland understood him. This wasn’t the first time he met his people, who were living in another place. There was always the familiar tone of longing in their voice although they were happy where they were. He guessed the feelings for homeland never really disappeared.

“It is okay. Home will wait for you”, he promised, wondering how much his presence was affecting the Icelander, “just take your time.” Freyr smiled and nodded. They chatted quietly about few other topics, which relaxed Iceland a lot. He had had no idea that simple friendly conversation would have that effect, but so it was.

“Break is over, everybody”, Anna finally said, “take your positions.” Iceland followed the order and took again his role of doing absolutely nothing. Although his talk with Freyr had been short, it had given him an idea. Norway wasn’t stupid enough to send in somebody who would give away their status as spy by simply being around, so Iceland needed to take an action. He had to take more contact to others and tried to find out the truth of their reasons. He laid in the tent, listening the calm breathing of sleeping humans, and wondered how exactly he would take more contact with them.

*****

Denmark knew he looked dramatically important when he marched along the long hallway, only few flickering lights leading the way and his foot step being the only voice. He smiled and the covered bird cage he was carrying swung slightly. He was enjoying the moment rather lot, although it had been hard to get at that point. The long scars on his arms were a definitive proof of that.

He stopped to knock at the unmarked door and stepped in once he got a reply. He would have usually greeted the Norwegian personification with a kiss, but this time he settled for just a smile and nod to show he had managed his mission with success. He placed the cage on the table in front of the Norwegian, picking up the cover to reveal the black bird.

“Mr. Puffin”, Norway said with a calm voice full of power, “how lovely you decided to join us today.”

“Oh yeah, good day for you too”, the bird said with a pissed off voice, “you fucker.”

“Mind your language”, Norway said, “we are in civilized company.” Puffin snorted and took few steps around, although the cage wasn’t big enough to give him much space.

“Civilized company, my ass”, the bird replied, “so, norski, what is so important that ya send your lover boy to get me?” The puffin looked around like he was still completely ruling the situation, despite the fact he was the one sitting in the bird cage.

“I will let you know just in moment”, the Norwegian promised, but the bird was paying more attention on the nation’s expressions than listening.

“Watcha you look so funny?” he asked and stared sharply at the Dane, “didn’t I already like almost bit off some of your fingers?”

“Yeah, they healed up already”, the Dane replied and waved his fingers to show he in fact had ten perfectly healthy ones, “and for me, being called Nor’s lover boy is a compliment!”

“Freaks”, Puffin said and let a loud shriek, “I am so gonna sue you over this! This is false imprisonment! A felony!”

“I am not aware of human laws applying for birds”, Norway said calmly, “which you, in fact, are.” Birds were not able to show much expressions, but Puffin definitely looked like he was giving he Norwegian a bad look.

“I am gonna call animal protection”, he said, “this cage is too small for a puffin! It is a law, you fucker.”

“I see you are familiar with the animal protection law”, Norway replied, “and so you should know that in special case it is allowed to hold an animal in smaller cage in case it is needed for medical or other purposes.”

“You haven’t got any valid reason to keep me locked up”, Puffin said.

“Protection of a person counts for a valid reason”, Norway noted and smirked, “didn’t you just say you almost bit off my colleague’s fingers? That for sure makes you too dangerous to let roam free. Think about children.” Denmark gave the Norwegian slightly pouting look for the man’s choice of words but didn’t dare to interrupt. He had taken a place behind the Norwegian’s chair, standing like he was the personal guard for the man.

“Without veterinarian’s acceptation you can hold me only up to 4 hours”, Puffin said, “I will just remain quiet until you gotta let me go.”

“Unfortunately for you, we have legalized veterinarian here”, Norway noted and nodded toward the Dane, “and he agrees on my statement.” Puffin didn’t seem happy to hear that, but he wasn’t going to give up just then.

“I am a fucking wild animal. Super rare species, even”, he said, “you gonna need a scientific reason to capture and hold me.”

“Don’t worry about that”, Norway said, “we will for sure to find a scientific reason, too. Would that make you happier?” Puffin gave him the last bad look, and then he let a noise that sounded like sighing.

“Whatever, freak”, he said, “just tell me what the fuck you want.”

“I am happy we have reached understanding”, Norway said with a smirk, “so, I believe you have noticed how there have been some… Strange things happening lately.”

“You mean the increasing amount of missing information and confusion around Iceland?” Puffin asked with slightly bored tone, “yeah, I have noticed.” Norway slammed his hands against the table, leaning closer to the cage.

“What have you done?” he snarled, “why are you setting my brother in danger?” Puffin stared back, not flinching away from the Norwegian, and then he laughed.

“Oh, you think this is my doings?” he croaked, “you are barking up to wrong tree, buddy, I have nothing to do this.”

“You are the leading agent of Icelandic Secret Service”, Norway said, “and all the evidence we have points to the Service’s agents.”

“Yeah, but I have nothing to do with this”, Puffin said, “you think I would be stupid enough to do anything that would be dangerous for Icey? He is the one keeping me alive, you moron!”

“That is a good point”, Denmark noted and after a brief thinking Norway nodded.

“I assume you know more about this all”, he said, and the bird nodded.

“Of course”, Puffing said and waved its’ wings, “I knew something fishy was going on already long time ago.”

“But you did not care to let my brother to know about it?” Norway asked, “or told me?”

“Icey doesn’t need to know about some little troubles. He gets stressed easily”, Puffin said, “and you are a fucking creeper. Why would I talk to ya, when the hell hasn’t freeze over yet?”

“Actually…”, Denmark started, but Norway interrupted him.

“Not time for that joke now, Dan”, he said and turned to look at the Puffin again, “I see. You might be able to help us, then.”

“Why would I want to?”

“Simply because you need to”, Norway said, “the fact that you have known about the problems for a long time already, but still haven’t solved them, shows clearly that you are not able to handle them alone. Me and Dan, in other hand, are able to do much more. We only need more information.” Puffin seemed to think about the nation’s words, taking again few steps back and fort before he made up his mind.

“Yeah, you got it right”, he said, “and despite of you being a noisy bastard, you would protect my Icey boy. Fine, I am in. Let me out of this cage now.” Norway nodded and reached to open the small door.

“So, what you know?” he asked, but the bird took a moment to careful stretch his wings before he bothered to answer.

“So, I don’t know about motives or reasons”, he started, “but something is definitely going on.”

“That we knew already.”

“But did you know it started about a month before Icey returned from the University?” Puffin said seemed to smirk when Norway showed a hint of surprise on his expression, “the Service has nothing to do it, but you got it right that some agents are involved. I think you know some of them.”

“Tell me names”, Norway asked.

“Kristfríður Agnarsdóttir, Jöfur Loðmundurson and Reynheiður Bæringsdóttir”, the puffin said, “they are the main ones, but there are few other people involved too. Kristfríður is the one being the boss here. It was her idea, I bet.” Norway nodded. He was familiar with those names.

“I knew she would be a problem”, he muttered with a frown on his face, “the way how she… Well. This for sure gives a whole new aspect on this problem.”

“They know already you are after them”, Puffin noted, “and they know everything about your kind. Good luck with catching them.”

“Thank you”, Norway said, already pondering of the possible solutions, “was this all you know?”

“For now, yeah”, Puffin said with slightly impatient tone, “can I go now or wanna you pretend to be badass a bit longer?”

“You may go”, Norway nodded, “I trust you will come to us if anything new comes up.”

“Yeah, whatever”, the puffin said but stopped just before he jumped off the table, “by the way, I hate ya but I gonna admit it was a smart move to send Icey to safety into your land.”

“Thank you.”

“But are you sure he will be completely safe there?” the bird asked with serious tone, “people are clever when they got motivated enough, you know, and that lot seems to be hell motivated.”

“I assure you, my land is the safest place for him to be in”, Norway replied without hesitation, “and even so, I have people watching over him, and those people are loyal only to me.”

“Fine then”, Puffin said and prepared to fly out from the opened window, “see you later, losers!” He left quickly before the nations had chance to say goodbye, not that they were going to do that anyway. Norway frowned when he thought about the new information, and Denmark waited quietly for him to finish. Finally, the Norwegian sighed.

“Things seems to be even more complicate than I thought”, he said.

“Good thing we got Island already away”, Denmark noted, “and you have a plan, right?”

“Yes, I have”, Norway replied and looked up to the Dane, “I hope you are ready for some more action.”

“Anything for family”, Denmark said and leaned to press a kiss on the man’s forehead, “just tell me what you want to be done, and I will take care of it.” Norway nodded, taking the Dane’s hand and jus holding it gently for comfort. He had lot to worry about, but like always Denmark’s presence helped him to keep his thoughts clear and figure out their next step.


	7. Spy's secret

Denmark smiled when he heard the door opening, knowing that only one person would step in and that one happened to be his favourite one in the whole world. His happiness only doubled when he could finally stop worrying about what the Norwegian was doing. Denmark knew well that there was no actual danger, but he couldn’t make his mind stay ease when Norway was out, trying to find information on their enemies and lurking around in places he wasn’t exactly allowed to go. Denmark would have preferred to do that part himself, but he knew from experience that following Norway’s order was a good idea and that the Norwegian nation was capable to survive the mission.

“How was it?” the Dane asked, walking to the hall to meet the man. He used the old language, the one they had spoke when they had born and that was already forgotten by the humans although it still was the roots of their modern languages. It wasn’t too often they used it, although they hadn’t forgot, but the spying devices hidden in Iceland’s home had forced them to use different ways to avoid being eavesdropped. They had been furious when they had realized how far the agents had gone with invading the Icelander’s privacy, but taking the devices away wasn’t an option. That would have only told the spies that the nations knew about them, and right then Norway and Denmark’s best advance was that nobody knew that they knew. It was better to just play along. Luckily, they knew how to do that.

“Difficult, but I attained at least some new information”, Norway said, a small smirk playing on his lips when he walked closer. Denmark knew what it meant so he opened his arms, perfectly acting like the Norwegian had said something completely else. Something that one would expect to hear from lover’s lips at the moment of reunion.

“What was it?” he asked softly, leaning to kiss the man. Norway eagerly replied to him, his words and body speaking completely different languages, just like the Dane’s.

“I couldn’t find any trace of this going deeper into the politic system. It seems to be just the agents, as that bird told us”, Norway said with a voice barely stronger than whisper.

“That’s good”, Denmark noted.

“But it worries me”, the Norwegian said with weirdly soft tone while smothering the Dane with kisses, “what is their motive? If it is not the political power, what would they be after?”

“Economical power?” the Dane suggested, “money and fame has always kept the humankind thrilled.” He was pulling the Norwegian against him, his hands wandering a bit more than was appropriated.

“I thought it too”, Norway replied softly, gently nibbling the Dane’s ear, “but there has no been any attempts to actually get founds out of it. So far all I have seen, has been just simply monitoring and controlling.”

“Maybe they haven’t launch the whole plan yet?” Denmark said, “trying to influence Island is just the beginning.”

“It could be so”, Norway agreed, “but I still can’t see the whole picture, and that worries me. They are monitoring him, withdrawing and manipulating information, and trying to secretly cut his connections to other world, but they are doing it so carefully Island himself didn’t notice. They are after something, but what it is?” He knew it was a risk to speak so much while they were trying to mislead the spies by making it look like they were doing completely normal lover things, but he added few well-placed groans and tone changes to make it sound like he was merely urging the Dane to get going. Denmark helped him with kisses on neck and wandering hands. For any spying eyes, it would have really looked like they were deeply engaged into each other.

“We can still gather more information”, Denmark said with a calming tone, “Island will be safe for now, and they still don’t know we know about them, right?”

“I am afraid they are suspecting”, Norway said, “we haven’t been careful enough. Too many leads left after.”

“We still got good stance”, the Dane noted, “want me to go in and chat again with Island’s assistants?”

“That would be a good idea. I want to know if any of them is included”, Norway whispered, “but be careful. Don’t get hurt.”

“Anything for you, my love”, Denmark said, and Norway snorted. Although they were pretending in order to hide their plans from the spies watching after them, there were honest feelings behind their actions. Every kiss was just as soft as usually and their bodies pressed together with familiarity. Norway was playing with the Dane’s hair, tugging and stroking to guide the man and to show eagerness. Denmark smiled, holding on the Norwegian and hiding his face against the man’s neck. Even in middle of mission, he could not just stop the feelings and sensations the closeness was giving him. He knew the Norwegian felt same.

“Should we take this to bedroom?” he whispered and moved carefully to draw out a soft moan from the man.

“Island’s room is the only one without cameras and microphones”, Norway whispered back, “he would kill us if we did anything there… And I wouldn’t be comfortable with that either.”

“Oh, you are right”, Denmark said with disappointment, “it would kill the mood quickly.”

“Another time”, Norway sighed and kissed the Dane’s cheek, “I promise.”

“I will be looking forward for it”, Denmark said with a small smirk and let his hands continue their wandering, so the spies would not suspect anything, “how we gonna end this in way they are not getting any ideas? Would be quite weird to first get this hot and then just drop everything for watching TV or something.” Norway nodded and pushed their foreheads together, closing his eyes for a moment.

“Your phone is going to ring in 58 seconds”, Norway said, “pretend that it is something important and you have to leave. It gives you a chance to go to talk with Island’s assistants now without it looking weird for you to be around there.”

“Roger that”, Denmark said, “but why 58 seconds…. umph!” Norway cut him off with a deep kiss, making the Dane forget the situation for a moment and close his eyes just so he could enjoy the feeling more. Norway hold the man’s focus until the ringing phone disturbed them.

“Because 58 seconds is just long enough time to give you a kiss good enough to think about while waiting for me to hold my promise”, the Norwegian said with a small smirk on his lips, which quickly gave way for the pretended annoyance, “phone, Dane.”

“Oh, you…”, Denmark said shaking his head and letting a frustrated groan while taking the call. Of course, nobody replied, the ring had been merely a trick, but he had had enough quick calls with his boss to pretend that he was being called for a sudden meeting. He even added desperate tone and kept caressing the Norwegian’s cheek while giving him apologizing looks. Norway replied with the look on his face turning sour, just like a lover knowing he was going to be left alone would have had.

“I am going now”, Denmark told him after the call ended, making it sound like he was begging for forgiveness, “see you later.”

“Call me if you need help”, Norway replied, his voice harsh to pretend that he was upset for being left like this

“Sure”, Denmark said grimacing bit for the angry tone he had to pretend. After giving the Norwegian just a quick look and last peck on cheek for goodbye, he left. Norway crossed his arms and huffed, muttering few angry sounding words to himself and listening spies before starting to follow his daily routines. He could feel the pressure of being observed by somebody he didn’t know, but he reminded himself of their mission. Destroying the cameras and microphones now would only reveal that they knew something was going on, and Norway and Denmark couldn’t afford to be discovered right then. There would be time to face the spies later.

****

“Sorry that we dumbed you into ditch”, Sigrid said with such a neutral tone that it was clear she wasn’t saying it for the first time. She placed her tray next to the Icelander’s without asking if the seat was free and gave the man a quick smile.

“Do I still have to say it is okay?” Iceland asked dryly and got short shrug for the answer. It had been already few days since they had returned from the field training, and Iceland didn’t hold grudge about being accidentally dropped into ditch only an hour before the ending. In fact, it seemed like Anna was the one most upset about the incident, because it had given to her leadership training a shameful tone. Others in the team had been more and less amused, even their team leader had openly joked about the poor soldier in distress being dumbed like that. So far that Iceland knew, that little mistake hadn’t even lowered their points and hasn’t been mentioned on the papers at all.

“It would make me feel better”, Sigrid replied with a small smile. Since the field trip, she had sat down with Iceland for the lunch. Iceland himself didn’t know why the woman had started to do so, but it was sure that her social nature had brought few other team mates in too. For the past week Iceland had been having lunch with Sigrid, Ola, Freyr and Anna, although the latest didn’t always show up. Sigrid had explained that Anna liked to work while eating and therefore sometimes spent her lunch time in the team room instead of cafeteria. Iceland thought that was weird, but nobody else in the team seemed to care about it so he too just shrugged and focused on his own lunch.

“Fine”, Iceland muttered, “it is okay.”

“Thanks!” Sigrid smiled, and her excited reply earned few quiet laughs around the table. It didn’t take her long to start a lively chat with the few guys sitting with them. Iceland didn’t join in, but he paid attention on the way how the humans talked. After all, he had already realized that the only way to reach his goal was to gather information. He had already wasted too many weeks for just waiting for the spy somehow reveal themselves by an accident, but luckily it seemed like most of humans communicated same way the ones Iceland had meet before had done. It really didn’t differ so much from the way how nations communicate, Iceland noted and nodded. He could handle this.

Next two days he spent with observing and planning who he should interrogate first. Listening while others talked and seeing them during training and free time helped, but he wasn’t getting answers to the questions he wanted to ask. He needed to find out who was lying, and that brought even another dilemma to his mind. He should be careful about what he was asking because if the humans got uncomfortable, they would start avoiding him and that would make things even more difficult. The Icelandic nation was just sitting at the quiet corner of the library and pondering about his possibilities, when Kjerstina showed up.

“Oh, hi”, the woman said, adding a nod for her greeting, “uh, what are you doing here?” The question was so straight-forward that Iceland had to quick think if he was missing something, but he was sure there were no lessons or training scheduled for that evening.

“Just planning the writing project”, Iceland replied and turned few pages of the notebook he had. He used that notebook mostly just writing down his thoughts about who could be the spy, but he had also written few pages about the actual projects he was supposed to do just in case somebody would start to ask why he carried the notebook with him. Apparently, he had been right about human’s curiosity.

“Oh, which case you took?” Kjerstina asked and eagerly moved closer to take a look of Icelander’s notes.

“Battle of Copenhagen in 1801”, Iceland replied.

“Interesting choose”, the woman noted, “I think nobody else is going that far into history.”

“Yeah, but it is well documented battle”, Iceland said with a small shrug, “and it started because of diplomatic failure so I thought it will give several good aspects to think about.” Of course, Iceland knew even more than had been documented. When it had been clear that Copenhagen was in risk to be attacked once again, Norway had sent the Icelandic nation to the north to be safe. Still, Iceland had witnessed the whole process that lead to the conflict, and he had heard more than enough about it later on. Mostly because the whole incident had pissed off the Norwegian nation rather badly and he had been vocal about it later on. Now that he thought about it, sending him to north had always been Norway’s first plan to follow if there were dangers coming. Iceland didn’t even care to count how many times he had been dragged up from the bed and sent on way in middle of night, sometimes with Norway, sometimes alone with only the trusted forest’s creatures watching over him. His brother really seemed to trust that his land was the safe haven, Iceland thought, but Kjerstina was still requiring his attention so he pushed the thought off his mind.

“That is true”, Kjerstina agreed, “was it against Sweden?”

“No, but that was a good guess”, Iceland replied, “it was Denmark-Norway against United Kingdom.”

“Gosh, I got my history facts wrong”, the woman said, laughing softly.

“Statistically speaking you weren’t off much”, Iceland replied, smiling bit when Kjerstina laughed again. The numerous wars between Denmark and Sweden were still a bit sensitive topic in the family, but also handled with humour now and then when the situation was right.

“Well”, Kjerstina shrugged, “I was actually looking for a place to sit down and write my own project.” She showed the laptop under her arm and glanced at the chairs around the table, so the Icelander took a hint.

“Just sit here”, he said, “I am gonna leave soon.” Kjerstina smiled and nodded for thank you. She sat down and soon was typing with slight frown on her face. Iceland focused on his notebook, writing down few points to think about so it would look like he was planning an outline. He had already listed the names of his team mates and marked with small x those that he suspected most. Kjerstina’s name was without mark, but at that moment nobody was off the list.

“Hey, Kjerstina?” Iceland said after few minutes had passed.

“Yeah?”

“Where you are from?” Kjerstina glanced up, looking bit confused about the sudden question.

“Mo i Rana”, she still said without questioning the Icelander, “it is quite bit to the north from here.” Iceland nodded, trying to recall if he had ever visited that place. He didn’t come up with any specific memories, though he wouldn’t have been surprised if it turned out he had been there. Norway liked to go around his land and it was often that Iceland followed him.

“I have been around there, I think”, he said with a nod, “you are far from home then.”

“Just like you”, Kjerstina replied with a smile, “or maybe not so far. Iceland is farther away.”

“True”, Iceland noted, “this is not first time I live in… Here, so I forget to think about it sometimes.” He stopped himself just in time before he said “Norway’s land”. It would have sound weird for humans to call the country like that, but for Iceland it was just as weird to call the country by his brother’s name.

“It is bit same to me”, Kjerstina said, “I have relatives living in Oslo, so being around here is not really making me feel home sickness. I can always go and visit my relatives when we have day offs.”

“Cool”, Iceland said with a nod, feeling bit awkward about keeping the conversation going, “uh, how you like our program?”

“It is exactly what I expected it to be”, Kjerstina replied, “I actually applied three times before getting in. This is really popular one, but they take so few in at once that you have to really have something to show them at the testing.”

“Yeah, it was hard one”, Iceland said, though he had never gone through any testing to get in. Norway had really pulled some strings to get what he wanted, apparently.

“I still didn’t mind”, Kjerstina said with a smile, “not when few years wait gave me a chance to be on the same team with captain Thomassen.”

“Really?”

“Of course”, the woman nodded, “he is one of the best we have and he has always been a praised team leader. It is just an honour to be able to train with him and especially now that he is working for the school for the first time. I am not even only one, I heard Anna and Sigrid both specially requested to be taken in this year and Jørgen sent in his application only after hearing the captain was going to be the team leader this year.”

“Oh, wow”, Iceland said and frowned, “wait, you said those two requested to be taken in?” Kjerstina nodded.

“There is actually two ways to get into this program”, she said and lowered her voice a it like she was telling a secret, “the usual way is to send in application and be called for the testing, but sometimes people get offered to have a position. Those two have both showed their potential and skills in way they were given a free ticket just because the military wants to invest on them.”

“I had no idea that is possible”, Iceland said, although until that point he hadn’t had any idea about how people got selected into the program. In his point of view, there where three ways: sending application, being offered or having a brother who liked to play stupid games and had way too much influence in his country.

“Not many knows”, Kjerstina said, “I only heard about it from my supervisor after I had failed to get in twice.” Iceland nodded, thinking about all the information he had got only in few minutes. He had thought that Kjerstina was too calm and shy to actually be so much involved into anything, but it was turning out she was in fact a great source of information and knew exactly what she was doing. It also sounded like she had a good alibi to be in the school, so Iceland let the discussion to die after few more changed words, wrote down few notes on his notebook while carefully shielding it with his arm although he wrote everything in Icelandic, and then he pretended to be surprised about how much the clock was. Kjerstina gave understanding smile for his shocked acting and they quickly said goodbyes before the Icelander left.

“I should talk with Sigrid next”, he muttered quietly to himself, planning his next move while walking. He had already marked Sigrid’s name with x.


	8. Silly secret

It turned out talking with Sigrid was more difficult than Iceland would have ever guessed. It wasn’t about getting the woman speak, she spoke pretty much all the time and filled every silence with her voice, but the problem was to actually have a conversation with her. Every time Iceland tried, somebody else took Sigrid’s attention or she herself got side-tracked. Iceland also wanted to have bit calmer situation to ask his questions in way it didn’t look weird, but Sigrid was definitely the most popular person in their team. After few days of waiting for his chance, Iceland was getting impatient. He had already wasted two months and that was one third of the whole time he had been given. He knew very well that Norway would not change the rules only because Iceland found it difficult to small talk with a woman.

The lecture was just telling them about the basic needs of humans, something that apparently was significant for human resources management and leadership, but Iceland wasn’t paying much attention. He was writing his own notes down, carefully marking all the things he had noticed about his team mates, and for his displeasure the notes were turning out to be rather messy and confusing. He needed more information.

The day was warmer than usually, and it made even the well-trained team snooze off during the lecture in the poorly air-conditioned auditorium. The lecturer herself realized that too and decided to hold more breaks just to give them chance to regain their focus. When she once again announced 20 minutes break, Iceland moved closer to Sigrid.

“Hey, Sigrid?” he said, feeling bit better when the woman actually turned to look at him. His hope dies fast, though.

“Just a min”, the woman said, already hurrying away, “I will just go to toilet first!”

“But… Okay”, Iceland sighed. There would be somebody else speaking with the woman when she got back, Iceland already knew it.

“She is difficult one to catch attention of”, the man sitting next to Iceland noted. The nation startled because he hadn’t been thinking that somebody overheard him, and the man hadn’t said anything before that moment.

“Well, yeah”, Iceland muttered, trying to recall the man’s name.

“She is already engaged, actually.”

“What… Oh”, Iceland quickly connected the dots, “I wasn’t…. I mean…. I just wanted to talk with her about the mission training we have next week. She is going to be on my team.” He could feel slight red on his cheek when he thought his tries to talk with woman had been so misunderstood, but the man gave him an embarrassed smile.

“Oh, sorry”, he said avoiding the eye contact, “I tend to jump into conclusions too fast. That was kinda rude, actually. Sorry about that.”

“It is okay”, Iceland muttered, “I was trying to get attention quite hard, I guess.”

“Yeah”, the man muttered, “uh, she is popular one and always going around. Even her fiancée has problems to keep up with her.”

“I don’t wonder that.”

“Yeah”, the man said and looked to the distance, “my name is Lars-Emil. You looked like you were trying to remember it.”

“Yeah”, Iceland muttered, “sorry.”

“It’s okay”, the man said. Iceland was quite sure that was the most awkward conversation he had evet had with anybody. Only in first 2 minutes they had both got embarrassed and now they had to somehow to keep up the awkward small-talk because they were supposed to sit next to each other about two hours more. Iceland was also quite sure Lars-Emil would be in his training team at one point because captain Thomassen liked to mix the groups all the time. Indeed, this was the most awkward conversation ever. Even that time when Sweden had accidentally told Iceland his brother was more romantically involved with the Dane than Iceland had thought, and then later confirming the facts with Norway, had not been ever near this moment.

“The half-Finn?” Iceland asked just for sake of keeping the talk going somehow.

“Yeah”, Lars-Emil replied, “another half is Norwegian.”

“I thought you said you got Swedish relatives?” Iceland finally managed to recall the first time he had seen the man.

“I have those too”, he said, “my mother is a Finn, but my grand-uncle moved to Sweden when he was young and got family there, so my mother’s cousins and cousin’s kids are Swedish. We visit often.”

“Oh”, Iceland said, “nice.”

“My mom was actually living in Sweden when she met my father”, Lars-Emil continued while still staring at the distance, “I have Swedish ID because of that, actually, mom didn’t move to Norway until I was five.”

“So, technically you are Swedo-Finno Norwegian?”

“Yeah”, Lars-Emil nodded, “but it gets even wilder.”

“Can it really?”

“I was born in Denmark”, the man said with a small amused smile on his lips when he saw the Icelander’s confusion, “mom decided to have holiday there just before I was due. Let’s just say that my mom has never listened rules and the nurse telling her that traveling with almost ready baby in belly was not a good idea didn’t really make her change her mind. Mom managed to have two days of holiday before the birth started. She still tells me that I made her miss the train to Aarhus and that concert she had wanted to see.”

“What?”

“It’s true”, Lars-Emil said, looking amused that his story had once again shocked somebody, “I have Copenhagen as birth place in my passport.”

“So, you have got almost every Nordic country”, Iceland muttered, “only one missing.”

“Actually…”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah”, Lars-Emil nodded, “according to my mom, I was results of a honeymoon to Iceland. She likes to brag about her multi-Nordic kid.” Iceland blinked few times and tried to understand how it was even possible. Lars-Emil had apparently faced misbelieving before too, because he promptly fished up his ID-cards to prove it.

“Your mom sounds like an interesting person”, Iceland finally muttered, still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that a single person could be connected to all Nordic countries like that.

“She is that”, Lars-Emil said, “my sister inherited those traits from her.”

“Is she also multi-Nordic?” Iceland asked.

“Well, she was born in Faroe Islands”, he said, “but mom says it was only because she counted the pregnancy wrong and she didn’t mean to spoil her holiday again by giving a birth suddenly in middle of wandering route.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

“So does my whole family”, Lars-Emil said and sniggered quietly, “grandma has even more stories about mom. She pretty much did every crazy thing she just could come up with.” Iceland nodded, truly believing that a woman who ended up having her kids like that would have done much more strange things too.

“I think it sounds like she is enjoying her life”, the nation said, briefly thinking that Denmark would love to meet such a person. The Danish nation had always been fascinated of human and their ways to fully use the limited time they had been given. He would have found this whole story one of the best he had ever heard, and Iceland made a mental note to tell him about it.

“Yeah, she is”, Lars-Emil said and smiled, “sometimes I want to be bit more like her. I know it is not most usual to wish to be like your own mother, but I do.”

“I don’t see anything bad about that”, Iceland muttered. He didn’t have mother, nobody of his family had as they had just appeared one day without any parents, so he didn’t know how it would feel to have one. He frowned when he thought about how it would be if he also had somebody that had been taking care of him all his life. He did have Denmark and Norway, but was that same thing, he wondered.

“Andersen?”

“What? Oh, sorry,” Iceland asked and gave the man apologizing smile when he realized he and snoozed out in middle of conversation. Not that it could make the talk be more awkward than it already was.

“It’s okay. So warm here and all, easy to lost focus”, Lars-Emil said, “I just asked if you got as crazy mom than I do?”

“Uh”, Iceland wondered if he could pass Norway as mom, but decided against it. He had a brother, not mother, “I am orphan, actually, so I don’t really…”

“I am sorry”, Lars-Emil said, looking truly worried, “I had no idea… Sorry about just talking… My mom… and….”

“It’s okay”, Iceland said quickly, “I was just few years old. I don’t even remember anything about her- Can’t really miss somebody that you don’t even remember.” Lars-Emil still looked sad, but he nodded.

“Yeah, I guess”, he said.

“I was raised by my brother”, Iceland continued just to lighten up the situation a bit, “he and his spouse were my guardians.” Iceland reminded himself to tell Denmark he had given him a status as Norway’s husband. That should make the Dane happy.

“Ah, that’s nice”, Lars-Emil said, “good thing you had an older brother to take you in.”

“Yeah, it was”, Iceland muttered, “it was him who suggested that I take up this program.”

“Nice, I got inspiration from my mom, actually. I wanted to have adventures like she had”, the man said and paused then, hesitating bit before he continued, “and this might sound weird but I kind of wanted to do something she hadn’t done, and she never went to military so…”

“I don’t think that sounds weird”, Iceland muttered. He also wanted to show Norway and Denmark that he could do same they were doing and even more. That he wasn’t helpless child nation anymore. It had been a while since he had seen them last time and thinking them made him feel already familiar sting inside.

“Hey! Sorry about the wait, I met some old team mates on way back here”, Sigrid said, smiling when she stopped by the table, “so, what it was you wanted to speak about?” Iceland glanced at her, noting at the lecturer had also returned and looked ready to continue the lessons. He didn’t really have time to chat more.

“It was just about the mission training next week”, he said, “but the break seems to be over. I will catch you later.”

“Sure”, Sigrid said, “I will be at the shooting range this evening. Feel free to come over there.”

“Okay, I will do so”, Iceland said nodding when the woman smiled and returned to her own seat. The lecture continued just as it was supposed. Conversation between Lars-Emil and Iceland had ended just perfectly so that the awkward start didn’t haunt them. Iceland was still sure he would not attempt another conversation with the man, partly because he didn’t dare to try again and partly because he hadn’t really notice anything suspicious about him if one didn’t count his strange mom.

When they had given their evening break, Iceland made his way to the shooting range. Sigrid had left already earlier, she had clearly been prepared for shooting training because she left so quickly once they had finished the day. That didn’t surprise the Icelander because he had already learnt the woman liked to be strict with her training although she skipped some etiquette regarding on how to address her team mate. Iceland however avoided raising suspicious feelings, so he had taken care he knew exactly how he was supposed to act. That’s why he saluted to Anna when she walked past as the woman held higher rank than he did. Anna replied to the gesture, not asking anything about why the Icelander was out so late although usually he stayed indoors during the evening break. She only gave him brief wondering look and continued her way.

There wasn’t anybody else at the shooting range so it was easy for Iceland to find Sigrid. He simply followed the sound of gun and waited for a moment for the woman to finish a round. When she did, he waved his hand to get attention. Even if a bullet would not kill him, he didn’t really want to sneak on woman holding a gun.

“Oh, hi. You showed up”, Sigrid said with the warm smile, “how it is going?”

“Just fine”, Iceland said and glanced at the array of weapons the woman had laid next to her, “training going well?”

“Yeah”, Sigrid nodded while loading the pistol, “I am not doing anything too special today. Just checking my aim. Helps me to clear off my mind.”

“I see.”

“Do you wanna take a round too?” she asked, “there is a space available.” Iceland glanced the guns again, feeling nothing than unfamiliarity toward them. He knew how to defend himself with a knife, not guns.

“No thanks”, he said, “I don’t know… I mean.”

“You don’t know how to use a gun?” Sigrid asked with surprised voice, and Iceland cursed silently for her catching on so fast. The lack of knowledge about guns was probably something he should not let anybody know.

“Um…. Well…”

“Ah, you are one of the tech guys, aren’t you?” Sigrid cut him off with slightly excited tone and Iceland nodded quickly, taking the chance to save himself, “I heard you guys don’t need to go on weapon training, but I haven’t had any on my team before. Forgot about that for a moment.”

“Well, yeah, there isn’t many of us”, Iceland said, hoping the woman would not go deeper into details, and making a mental note for himself to check what she was actually speaking about.

“Such a small department”, Sigrid nodded, “still important, if you ask me. I guess I know now why you spend so much time on laptop.” Iceland nodded, feeling like telling the real reason was not a good idea. He wasn’t actually doing anything military-ish with his laptop, but simply checking that his country was doing well. He trusted Norway, but it was still his country and he wanted to know exactly how it was doing.

“Yeah.”

“If you wanna learn”, Sigrid continued, probably because she was mistaking the Icelander’s looks as curiosity, “I think captain Thomassen can arrange somebody to show you the ropes and get started. It is not a bad skill to have when you are an officer, and believe me, nothing clears up your mind better than some aiming training.”

“I will think about it”, Iceland muttered and changed the topic, “well, about the mission training next week…”

“What about it?” Sigrid asked. Iceland had actually done his homework and prepared for this discussion, so he continued with an ease.

“I saw we are free to choose the mission type ourselves”, Iceland said, “and you are in the same team with me, so I wanted to ask if you would be interested on eliminate and escape mission?”

“Sounds interesting”, Sigrid noted, “but why to ask only me and not the whole team?”

“You are easiest to speak with”, Iceland said and shrugged, “and you know, I am tech guy, I was worried that it would be stupid idea for you field training guys.” Sigrid laughed, and Iceland smiled when he saw that he had managed to find the right answer.

“Well, I guess we are scary sometimes”, she admitted, “but don’t worry. That was actually a good idea, and Jørgen is also in our team. He is from air forces. Knows absolutely nothing about this type of training so you are not alone.”

“Good to know”, Iceland muttered.

“If it makes you feel better, I can take your idea further”, Sigrid said and winked, “I am sure nobody is having any better ideas, and I love that type of missions.”

“Okay, thanks”, Iceland said with a nod, “by the way, Sigrid, I think I never heard where you come from?”

“I am an Oslo girl”, Sigrid replied with a smile, “although, my training has been taking me around the land couple of past years. Oslo is still the city I feel most home. How about you? Are you going to stay here or return back to Iceland?”

“I think I will return”, Iceland said, ignoring the fact that if he didn’t figure out who in the team was working for his brother he would be spending much more time in the country, “I have… specific feelings toward this land, but my place is elsewhere.”

“Homeland is always homeland”, Sigrid said with an understanding smile, “that’s why I actually went for military.”

“Because this is your homeland?”

“Yeah”, the woman nodded and laughed, “and I had other reasons too, but some of them are very silly so let’s just say I felt patriotic and wanted to serve my nation.”

“Silly reasons?”

“Too silly to be shared”, Sigrid laughed and shook her head, “it was almost twenty years ago, I was young and wild, full of eccentric ideas.”

“I don’t think there is anything bad about that”, Iceland noted, earning a smile from the woman, “I heard you got in without exam… Is that true?” Sigrid looked slightly taken aback from that, but she recovered quickly.

“Oh, so the rumours started to go around faster than I thought”, she said, “yes, it is true, but I truly earned my place so if there is anything else to be gossiped about…”

“No, not at all”, Iceland said quickly, “people are actually quite amazed, and I have heard only good things about you.” Sigrid looked at him, stopping to set her gun for a moment to give the Icelander a good observing look. Whatever she saw, she seemed to be satisfied with.

“I see”, she said, “well, that is good then.”

“Can I ask one more question?”

“Shoot away.”

“Why to come here now?” Iceland asked, “weren’t you offered place already earlier?” Sigrid didn’t reply right away but focused to check her aim and that she had set the gun correctly. When she finally replied, she didn’t look at the nation.

“That you should ask from Anna”, she said with low tone that Iceland wasn’t sure if it was sadness or just seriousness, “she is my… old team mate. Always had been. I just wanted to do this one last time together with her before we change the teams.” Iceland nodded, flinching when the gun fired. He looked at the target and saw the woman had aimed well.

“Okay”, he said and turned to leave, “I hope you will figure out whatever is bothering you.” Sigrid looked up, giving the nation surprised look.

“How did you…”

“Just a good guess. You said shooting helps you to clear off the mind and you seemed bit stressed”, Iceland said, ignoring the feeling that if Denmark had been there then, he would have said something. Just as observant as your brother, he would have said and ruffled the Icelander’s hair, clearly amused of finding similarities between the brothers. But Denmark wasn’t there, and Sigrid was only smiling softly.

“Well”, she said with a shrug, “you are right, but it is nothing too serious. Just small thing that has been bugging me for a while. It will solve itself soon enough.”

“If you say so”, Iceland muttered, “see you later.”

“Bye”, Sigrid said, “have a nice evening.”

“You too”, Iceland said and left. He could hear the almost rhythmical shooting until he was almost half way to the barracks, but it didn’t bother him much. He was already pondering about his next move. He only had few months left, after all.

*****

Denmark really liked Iceland’s assistants. Firstly, because they were quite fun to hang out with and secondly because they were all utterly found by the Icelandic nation. The Dane liked to know that there were people taking care of Iceland and ready to go far just to make sure he was happy. They also seemed to like the Danish nation and tended to share some well selected secrets with him, mostly ones about Iceland’s well-being but sometimes it was also about the great-great-aunt’s secret cake receipt that should only be known by the family members but Denmark was just being such a nice man, so he deserved to know it too. Denmark of course appreciated the secret cake receipt, he had tried it out already few times and he swore the great-great-aunt Gudhilde has been genius and apparently had big family because she seemed to be almost everybody’s great-great aunt, but mostly he wanted the information on Iceland. The assistants were happy to deliver that as they had seen and learn that if there was something wrong with their nation, telling about it to Denmark had a great positive effect. The Danish man would just fix everything in no-time and Iceland would be in better mood again. So that’s why Denmark was always very welcomed person in Iceland’s office. Especially when he brought home-baked cookies for everybody. Iceland claimed the Dane was trying to spoil his people, but Denmark strongly believed that every single one of them deserved cookies. After all, they were taking care of Iceland, who was the most important for Denmark and Norway.

“Hey, everybody!” Denmark said when he stepped into the office where five assistants worked, “how it is going? The baby still inside, Ragnhilde?” Ragnhilde, who was very clearly pregnant, laughed and got up to hug the Danish nation.

“Of course it is! I told you I am due on January. It is still many months till that!”

“Oh right. It takes so long!” Denmark said and leaned against the table close by once the woman had returned to her desk, “anything new around here? Sorry, I didn’t get any cookies this time.”

“That’s okay, we have some great-great aunt’s cake Túr baked”, one of the assistants said and nodded toward the another sitting next to her, “and no, things are going on as normal.”

“Well, no news is good news”, Denmark grinned.

“How is our Ísland doing?” yet another assistant asked, announcing the question they were all thinking about, “he wrote us few days ago and said it was fine. Have you heard anything more?”

“Not really, but Nor said he is in good care and I trust him with that”, Denmark said with a wide smile, “you know Nor, he wouldn’t let anything happen to Is in his own land.” There were agreeing nods and quiet murmurs when the assistant shared their opinions. Although Denmark was popular quest in the office, the Norwegian nation had also earned respect and also was known character in the many stories going around and carefully told each new assistant. So far that Denmark knew, Norway had gained almost mythical hero status among Iceland’s assistant team, and Iceland probably had no clue about it.

“Is it true he once jumped on table and threatened to kick out the president if he even thought about anything that would hurt Ísland?” Ragnhilde asked with excitement on her eyes.

“Oh yeah, he did”, Denmark said, “and kicked down the door to get on that table. I thought I had already told that story?”

“Not for us!” another assistant yelled, “I have heard it only as second-hand.”

“Damn, we gotta fix that mistake”, Denmark said, grinning happily, “but first, have you guys seen any shady persons around here?” The atmosphere in the room changed immediately as the smiles disappeared and the assistants looked around like they were expecting to be eavesdropped right then. Denmark frowned and leaned closer when one of them gestured him to come.

“We haven’t told anybody about this yet”, the man whispered to the nation, “but we have noticed some strange things happening around since our Ísland left.”

“Like what?” Denmark whispered back, suddenly aware that if the Iceland’s home was full of cameras and microphones, his office could be too. Norway hadn’t noticed any last time they visited, but it had been several days since. It didn’t take long to set some.

“Missing post, misplaced work, stuff like that”, the man continued, “and yesterday we found that somebody had tried to hack our computers. We got scared of course, but it seemed nothing was amiss so we kept the panic down for sake of our Ísland.”

“Good”, Denmark said with a slight nod, “don’t worry. We are already on this.”

“Is our Ísland safe?”

“He is”, the Dane promised, and the assistants gave him grateful looks. Regnhilde wrote something on piece of paper and gave it to Denmark.

“We haven’t notice anybody strange”, she whispered, “but this one has been asking after Ísland. She is an agent, so we didn’t think more of it, but it is strange too. She shouldn’t be asking.” Denmark glanced at the paper, noticing a very familiar name. He nodded and quickly pushed the piece of paper into his pocket.

“When you saw her last time?”

“This morning”, the assistant whispered and glanced at the vase on window sill, “she bought that one here. Said she got flowers but can’t keep them because she is allergic.” Denmark already knew what would be in that vase with the flowers and he cursed quietly. Norway would not be happy about this twist in the plot.

“Take that vase somewhere far away”, he said, “have you been talking about Island’s whereabouts while it was here?” The assistants glanced at each other, already sensing that something was very wrong.

“Can’t say for sure”, Regnhilde muttered, “I don’t think we talked about it but we are not being very careful when we are here just us… Do you think…?”

“Something sinister is going on”, Denmark whispered, “we don’t know exactly what and why, but it is aimed at Island.” The assistants looked shocked and worried, but they stayed calm.

“So that’s why…” one of them whispered, “Ísland was sent away. Does he know?”

“No, he does not”, Denmark said, “and for his safety, I hope you will not tell him yet. Nor has a plan and he will do everything to keep Island safe. He doesn’t need to know.” The assistant nodded, trusting on Denmark’s word and Norway’s plan. After all, Denmark had always fixed everything when Iceland had been in bad mood, and Norway was their own mythic hero who would save the day once again. They also knew very well that when something was wrong with nations, it was the best to let the nations deal with it.

“We will continue work as normally”, Regnhilde said, “and we will let you know if we find something more weird things around here.”

“Good, thank you”, Denmark nodded, “I gotta go now. See you around.” They wished him luck and when Denmark closed the door, he only heard the normal noises of typing and light small talk. He smiled, knowing that the assistant team would do their best.

The Danish nation continued his way, greeting the people he knew but not stopping for a talk. He needed to take the news to Norway as soon as possible, but he hesitated when he saw unexpected but familiar figure. Denmark got only few seconds to decide what he was going to do and because he had always been fan of direct action and he felt like Norway would accept it, he decided to take a move. the agent didn’t even notice him before he was right behind her.

“Fancy to see you here!” Denmark said loudly, feeling satisfaction when he saw the woman startle and almost drop the phone she had been so focused on, “Reynheiður Bæringsdóttir.”

“Danmörk”, the agent said sternly but politely, “I work here so…”

“Ah, so you haven’t been running after some nations lately, haven’t you?” Denmark asked and winked. The agent seemed to not appreciate the joke and looked sour for a moment before she got her neutral look back on. Denmark could understand her, although the free tour around Copenhagen he had offered to her and her partner few years back had been top class. He had showed them every single sight from tourist attractions to hided gems. It wasn’t his fault they didn’t appreciate it.

“I have been assigned to other missions”, she muttered, clearly not happy about being anywhere near the Danish nation, which honestly was a weird sensation for Denmark to realize. Usually he tended to get positive attention wherever he went, and he really hoped he would get soon back to Norway to receive some well-earned affection.

“How nice”, Denmark said with a shrug, “pity. I would have so many cities more to show you.”

“No thanks”, the woman muttered and glared at the nation. Denmark nodded, knowing that he had already got what he needed, and it was better to retreat before he actually told too much. Reynheiður might have been trained agent, but she wasn’t enough against a nation with a mission.

“I guess I will leave you on it then”, he said and waved his hand, “have fun.”

“You too”, she muttered.

“Oh, I will”, Denmark promised with a last smirk and walked away. Although he had smile on his lips, in his mind he was cursing. The brief talk had showed exactly the things he didn’t want to be true. Firstly, Reynheiður Bæringsdóttir had not asked anything about Iceland which meant she already knew at least enough to figure out the rest, and she hadn’t asked why Denmark was still in the country so apparently, she was also aware of the two Scandinavians being after them. The Danish nation grimaced and walked a bit faster to get to Norway quickly.


	9. Sorrow secret

Denmark calmly dodged the plate hurling past him and looked around in the kitchen to check the situation. It had been few weeks since he had brought the news to the Norwegian nation, and since then they had worked constantly to figure out what the agents were doing and how to stop it. It had already gone to the point that they had both withdrawn from their normal duties, claiming that they had family situation going on and needed time for it. Luckily, Sweden and Finland had stepped in to take care of the most important things while Iceland was away and Norway and Denmark went on their own war. Denmark was actually feeling bit sorry for leaving everything for them, because it wasn’t fun to be responsible of five nations at the same time. He already knew that in order to make it up for Finland and Sweden, they would have to book a two weeks romantic holiday for them or something like that.

“Hey, Nor”, the Dane said to get attention. The current situation was greatly stressing out the Norwegian, and whenever he got stressed and worried he started to be more physical in his actions, meaning that there wasn’t much plates left anymore after Norway had aimed his anger on them. They would have to replace all broken stuff before Iceland got back home and noticed what had happened to his plates.

“Hey”, Norway said and turned to look at the Dane, “did I hit you with anything?”

“No, your aim sucks”, Denmark said.

“I was not aiming at… Whatever”, Norway said and turned away, staring out of window and tapping his fingers against the table in unnerving rhythm. Denmark walked closer and rubbed the man’s shoulder, giving the only comfort the Norwegian accepted right then.

“Nothing new”, he said, and Norway nodded.

“I don’t understand this”, he muttered, “it has been three months already, half of the time I gave for Iceland to train with my troops. We know something is going on, and the agents know we know so… Why aren’t they doing anything now? Why are they so quiet?” There were no cameras or microphones in the house any longer. Once it had become clear that the agents knew, Norway had destroyed all the spying devices and used it to send a warning. He had been rather tired of that part of game already, and the destroying part had pleased him quite lot.

“Luring us into believing that they are not planning anything at all?” Denmark muttered, “or they are hiding and hoping we give up.”

“Probably”, Norway said with a sigh, “it feels like we are all just sitting in our trench, waiting for other side to do the first move because we are afraid our own first move will be the fatal one.”

“But Nor”, Denmark said, wrapping his arm around the man and briefly snuggling his cheek against the blond hair, “we have never failed to keep Island save. Just think all the times we have protected him, done anything and more. There is no way we will lose now.” Norway nodded, slightly leaning against the Danish man.

“You are right”, he said, “there is no way few humans can stand against us.” Denmark hummed, briefly enjoying the feeling of having his lover so close. The mission had greatly decreased the time they spent with giving each other affection, but Iceland was more important, so they pushed everything else on side without second though. Norway started to tap the Dane’s arm, bringing up a rhythm to focus his thoughts. Denmark simply waited, trusting that Norway would come up with a perfect plan like he had done so many times before.

“Hellou, lovebirds”, Puffing yelled and flew on the lamp from the small cat door he used to get in and out the house on will, “should I come back later or are you like done or something.”

“Hugging is hardly anything only between only lovers”, Norway said and glared at the bird, “where have you been? It has been weeks since…”

“I have been there and here, fixing stuff and sneaking around”, the bird said, “taking care my Icey-boy will be just fine. He owes me fuck tons of mackerels, you know. Gotta take care I get what is mine.”

“What have you found?”

“What? You gonna go straight to business? No small talk and nonsense polite stuff first? No questions on your sweet little brother’s enormous debt to biggest mob boss on this side of globe?”

“Puffin.”

“Yeah, yeah, okay”, the bird said and laughed with hoarse tone, “so, we are in deep shit now, okay? The agents have left the country.”

“What?”

“You know when somebody like physically goes over…”

“I know what leaving the country means”, Norway said angrily and slammed his hands against the table, “just tell me everything you know. Now.” Puffin tilted his head, staring at the Norwegian with his black eyes before turning to the Dane.

“I think that one needs to get laid or something”, he said, gesturing toward Norway with his wing, “you gotta do your job, Dane, nobody wanna deal with grumpy man like that.”

“Puffin.”

“Oh gosh, you are just like my Icey-boy”, the bird said, “both just as boring. Okay, dontcha get angry yet.”

“Tell me”, Norway said with a low, threatening tone, “or…”

“Yeah yeah”, Puffin replied, seemingly not worried at all, “so they left. All three. Packed their stuff, went their merry way and did exactly like it says on the Icelandic agent guidebook. All the not leaving hints behind tricks and so on. Impressive.”

“Where they went?” Norway asked, impatience clear in his voice. 

“So yeah, first they flied to Canada”, the bird said with almost a sing-song tone, or at least so close one a bird just could do, “then took a buss to States and flew to Peru. Then France, Hong Kong, Australia, France again…”

“Where they will end up after all that?”

“Take a wild guess”, Puffin said. Norway stared at him, the man’s expression showing now very little of emotions. The bird just looked back and didn’t say anything.

“Of course”, the Norwegian finally muttered, “they are going to get Island. So they really managed to get enough information from assistants to figure out the rest.”

“Yeah”, Puffin said.

“My people are loyal to me”, Norway continued, “there is no way they will let them anywhere near Island or let them know his exact whereabouts.”

“Funny”, the bird said, “that is what Icey-boy keeps telling and look where we are! We have traitors! I am so gonna shove this against his face next time he is around.” Norway didn’t reply for that, but the thought wasn’t unfamiliar for him. Despite of him defending his people, the idea of being betrayed had crossed his mind too. Still, he didn’t have need to discuss about that with a talking bird, so instead he turned away to start hasty preparations.

“How you know so much about their plan?” Denmark asked form the puffin, “if they are following the book and all.” Puffin gave the nation a bored look and stretched his wings.

“I fucking wrote that damn book”, he said, “of course I know all the tricks!”

“How the hell you can write. You haven’t got any fingers!”

“I have a beak, you fucking dumb ass”, the puffin said and snapped the said beak, “you can do ticketi-tic with a beak on keyboard, you know!”

“You know how to write?”

“I am a fucking talking bird, take a fucking guess!”

“I am gonna talk with Isey about your behaviour”, Denmark muttered, giving the puffin bad looks.

“Yeah?” the bird asked with a challenging tone, “watch me to not care at all then!” Norway, who had been quickly working on his laptop, closed it with a slam and looked up.

“Pack your bags, Dan, we have a flight in one hour”, he said, ignoring the argument between the talking puffin and immortal personification of Danish nation.

“Roger that!” Denmark said and continued with under his breath, “we should have kept that bird in cage when we had a chance.”

“That is fucking animal abuse, you dumbass!” Puffin yelled and flew on Norway’s shoulder, “you know, I don’t like you, but you are Icey’s brother so I am gonna give you a free tip; you should leave that idiot. Even you can do better than that. I actually know some guys that could pass as an easy…”

“Stop talking now or I make sure you will never talk again”, Norway said calmly. Puffin snapped his beak but seemed finally take the Norwegian nation seriously because he hopped off and gave him a long look, even stroking his beak with a wing like a human would have stroke their face while thinking.

“Hm, not bad”, he said, “maybe there is still hope in ya.”

“We are bit in hurry so if you wouldn’t mind…”

“Yeah yeah”, the bird said, “take care of my Icey-boy, you bastards.” That was all he bothered to give for goodbye, but the nations haven’t been expecting anything much more. They completely ignored Puffin’s leave, and focused on more important matters.

“What is the plan?” Denmark asked with serious tone and grabbed the bag he had quickly packed. There wasn’t much to take anyway. Just his and Norway’s passports, telephones, wallets and keys. Everything else was unnecessary.

“It has been a while since I saw my brother last time”, Norway said, quickly checking that he wasn’t missing anything, “it is high time to check on him. Right, general Andersen?”

“I think you are right, general Holgersen”, Denmark replied and grinned, quickly catching on the plan, “been a long time since I wore that uniform last time.”

“I am sure it will still look good on you”, Norway noted, “now, let’s go. There is no time to waste.”

 

*****

“Could you remind me again”, Iceland muttered, “why are we playing catch the flag with military equipment?”

“Because it is part of the training”, Ola replied, keeping on eye the enemy team that somehow haven’t spotted them yet, “and I am quite sure you are enjoying this just as much as we others.” They were both laying on the ground, hoping that their camouflage clothes and the low hanging spruce branches would keep them well hidden.  

“I wouldn’t say that”, Iceland muttered.

“It is good for you tech guys to get some real action.” Since Sigrid had assumed Iceland to be a tech guy and Iceland had run with that, the whole team had heard about it soon. For Iceland’s surprise their reactions had been mostly curious and positive, and it had even got to the point that Iceland had been accepted better as the part of team. He hadn’t really noticed it before, but there had been something that just separated him from others. Seemed like they had noted his inexperience with some aspects and that had been suspicious enough for them to not fully accept the Icelander. Now that there was reason for everything, after all tech side was known for their special education that greatly differed from the rest of military, the team was ready to welcome Iceland as one of theirs. It even seemed some of them were bragging about having a tech guy in their team, though Iceland wasn’t sure why they did that.

 Maybe it was just so unusual and new.

“We do get real action”, Iceland muttered, “this is just cruel. I think it will start to rain soon and we have been here hours.” He had carefully done his research on what kind of education and background a military tech guy should have. It wasn’t an easy task as lot of information was classified, but he found out that for some reason he had quite wide access to Norwegian governmental secrets, which he assumed Norway had something to do with, and he decided that because everything was so secret it meant that he really should not be talking about it much anyway. He soon noticed he had guessed right because everybody seemed to be carefully avoiding asking too detailed questions. They had already got used for restricted information.

“That cyber stuff, augmented reality or whatever you call it, doesn’t count”, Ola said, “this is the real stuff.”

“You know, they say information and cyber war will become the highest risks in near future”, Iceland muttered.

“You just say that to prove yourself that there is a meaning for it”, the old soldier said with humour in his tone. Iceland had already got familiar with playful picking on and he didn’t mind. At least it really helped him to gather information, and he already had his small notebook full of careful notes on his team mates. Unfortunately, none of them had yet done anything to reveal their secret status as Norway’s spy, but Iceland had managed to rule down the candidates to five; Jørgen, Anna, Ola, Jens and Lukas. Four first names he suspected because there was something unclear on how they had ended up to the program. Jørgen and Anna both had got free pass, but neither had explained more on it. Ola seemed like he didn’t really need more education, he already had quite long career in military, but there he still was. Jens and Lukas were still listed, but mostly only because neither had told much about themselves. Lukas was even so quiet person that Iceland had completely forgot to list him first at all.

The four other team mates Iceland had marked non-suspicious after he had talked with them more, although he knew that Norway’s spy had to be a good one, so nobody was completely innocent for sure before the game had ended. It was only that Iceland only had less than three month time which meant he had to put his focus on few most suspicious persons instead of trying the whole team.

“I guess old man like you just don’t get technology”, Iceland said back, he had learnt Ola was even older than he had assumed but of course still far from Iceland’s true age, “did they still used swords when you started?” The man laughed, trying to keep the tone down so nobody would notice them.

“You are getting snarky with your comments”, he said and pushed the Icelander’s shoulder, “show some respect to your elders.”

“Maybe later”, Iceland said, letting a smile appear on his lips when the man laughed again. He was starting to relax around his team now that they felt like, well, real team mates. Iceland was quite amazed about the change, but he wasn’t sure if he was going to tell his family about that. He had a feeling that Denmark would have something to comment about that.

“Do you think Kjerstina and Jens are already on their position?” Ola asked, changing the topic back to their mission of catching the flag, that was actually not a flag. It was a t-shirt. Nobody knew whose it was, but it was red and easy to spot so it got a new life as a training equipment.

“Might take them few mins more”, Iceland muttered, checking the opposite side with binoculars, “they have to take longer route around the river.”

“True”, Ola nodded, “the enemy position looks ok.”

“I haven’t seen Anna for a while”, Iceland noted, “that is worrying.”

“She could be just another side of that ditch. We can’t see well over there.”

“Or sneaking behind us with a gun.”

“That is possibility too”, Ola nodded and frowned when the little devices in their pockets made three short beeps, “we are having a break now?”

“Seems so”, Iceland said, also recognizing the signal’s meaning, “I thought we are supposed to carry out whole four hours in one go.”

“I thought so too”, Ola muttered, but dropped his guard for a while, “maybe something happened.”

“But they didn’t give alert or emergency signal”, Iceland said.

“Then we keep our position here and wait”, Ola said calmly. Iceland nodded, but kept playing with the device. It was barely larger than match box and all it could do was receive voice and send GPS signal, so their mission leaders could deliver the simple orders and see their position on map.

“Are you planning anything special for the weekend break?” Ola suddenly asked, snapping out the Icelander from his thoughts.

“No”, he replied, “not really. Why?”

“I just noticed you never leave the barracks for weekend breaks”, the man noted.

“So don’t you.”

“Yeah, but I have a reason.”

“What makes you think I don’t have one, too?” Iceland asked and glanced at the man, who had his normal gentle smile on his lips. Sometimes Iceland thought it looked like he was tired but kept smiling anyway.

“You are young”, Ola explained, “there is no way a young man of your age really has no place to go when given free from school and training.”

“My family is out of country”, Iceland said. He wasn’t exactly sure if that was true since he wasn’t allowed to hold contact with them, but he had a feeling that they were all causing problems somewhere else.

“Not even the significant one?”

“Don’t have one”, Iceland muttered, “never found anyone I want to share my whole life with.”

“Oh”, Ola said and scratched his cheek, “well, there is all time in the world and it is not like everybody need to be with someone like that. I have quite many friends who are completely happy and…”

“Yeah, of course”, Iceland said quickly. He was familiar with the topic and not willing to take it up again. Sometimes it seemed to be hard to understand that he preferred to share his life only with family and friends, not with a partner.

“Sorry”, Ola said, noting the bit harsher tone.

“It is okay”, Iceland muttered, “how about you then? Why aren’t you going out for weekends? Old man of your age should have things to do outside the training.”

“Well, about that”, Ola said with the same tired smile, “actually my reason seems to be same with you. I don’t have anybody to meet.” Iceland frowned and glanced at the old man who was looking away to the forest.

“I…”

“I used to have”, Ola continued before Iceland managed to say anything, “I had a wife, my beautiful Astrid, and we had a son. Me and Astrid met when we were young, too young almost, and it was love at first sight. We just knew it would be us two and nobody else.”

“What happened?” Iceland asked softly when the man sighed. He almost didn’t dare to ask, but he also felt like he should.

“Accident”, Ola said, still staring off to the forest, “we both loved our son dearly, but all the love couldn’t save him. He was only five years old when we held a funeral for him.”

“I am sorry”, Iceland muttered. The death wasn’t familiar for him, he was an immortal and so was his family, but he hadn’t lived his thousand years without seeing mourning and grief. He knew the feeling.

“It has been 38 years, but it still hurt”, Ola murmured, “they always say the pain will ease after time, but you know what? They are lying. Just trying to make you feel better. You will be able to live but the pain is not going anywhere.”

“I know.”

“My sweet Astrid”, Ola said, his voice breaking just a bit, “she was strong, but she had always fought her own demons. The kind I couldn’t help with. Losing our son was too much for her. 27 years she fought, the strongest woman I have ever met, but two weeks after funeral I…” Ola closed his eyes, trying to not recall the memories he didn’t want to see. Iceland wasn’t sure what to do, but just sitting there didn’t feel right so he did what he had seen humans to do with grieving and how his brother had comforted him. He moved closer and placed his arm around the man for a hug.

“There, there”, he said softly, hoping that was the right thing to say. Ola didn’t even seem to listen him.

“You don’t really understand how lucky you are until you lose it all”, he noted quietly, “my love only wasn’t enough to save Astrid and after it… all, I was lost. I did some very bad decisions. Almost got buried next to my wife and son right away, but somehow I kept living.”

“I don’t think she wanted to see you go too”, Iceland said, and Ola noted.

“I don’t think so either”, he said, “somehow, I think it was her who helped me to get over it. She found her peace and made sure that I wouldn’t make the mistake she did. I still love her just as I did the first day we met, you know, that feeling is never going away.”

“I know”, Iceland said, briefly thinking his brother. He knew without asking that Norway and Denmark would not carry on without each other.

“After I got back to my senses”, Ola said, “I sold all I had, gave away all the money we had saved for our plans. I only kept some clothes and photos, and then I joined the military. I think you already heard that I have been in this for a long time?”

“Yeah.”

“I didn’t start with Norway’s one”, Ola said, “they didn’t want to put new guys in action, but that was all I wanted. There are some troops all around the globe and some don’t ask for your reasons or origins so long you can follow the commands hold the gun right way. No loyalties needed, no questions asked, just do what you are told and that’s it.”

“Sounds harsh.” Ola nodded.

“That it is, but sometimes you only need that”, he said, “I served everywhere. Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq… Seen it all. I liked to think I was on the good guys’ side, but there isn’t really good side in war. Especially when you are getting paid for it and use all that money for wrong things once you got a free evening.”

“Yeah.”

“I did it almost for two decades”, Ola continued, “finally got tired and decided to return home. At that point there wasn’t much relatives left, and my friends had all forgot about me just like I did forget them. I had no education, no skills outside of following the rules. All I could think about was to hope that I would get in military here. Learn to work in different way and how to defend instead of attack.”

“And it worked?”

“Yeah it did”, Ola nodded, “I started all over again. Learnt all the things. Studied some other subjects on side just for fun and in case I would someday get enough of this or find new calling. It has been harsh life, but I think I finally found some peace.”

“That is good.”

“Do you know why I took this program?”

“No, I don’t.”

“It is required for those who want to train or teach in military school”, Ola said, “I figured that I better make the best of my wasted life and make sure I teach other people to not make same mistakes I did.” There wasn’t much to say after that so they spent a moment in silence with only the forest making its’ normal noise.

“I don’t think your life was wasted”, Iceland finally said, breaking the silence.

“How so?”

“You survived”, the nation said, repeating something he had heard from Denmark long time ago when they had spoke about humans and their life, “and can any life really be wasted when it has been lived? You still got lot of time left to do everything you want.” Ola didn’t reply right away, but his lips turned back into that sad smile.

“You are right”, he said with a nod, “I gotta take care I have lot to talk about when I meet my Astrid again. Can’t make her wait to be in vain, right?”

“Right.”

“Thank you”, Ola said, clasping the nation’s shoulder, “I don’t usually go around telling my story like this, but you seemed like a lad who would listen.” Iceland wasn’t too surprised about that. After all, it was often that the people felt strange trust toward their nation’s personification even if they didn’t know they were talking to them. Ola was a Norwegian, not an Icelander, but Iceland had heard enough times how he resembled his brother, so he could understand why he could have same affect to a Norwegian as his brother had. Also, Icelanders had been once Norwegians, Iceland still remembered that, and it was possible that Ola was distant relatives to them so in some way, Iceland was his nation too.

“You are welcome”, he said, “you gonna be okay now?”

“Just as okay I can be. Don’t worry about it”, Ola replied, “just make sure to tell your family how much you love and miss them.”

“I am not…”, Iceland said, but paused when he realized he was going to tell a lie. He did in fact miss his family and constant denying it wasn’t going to change anything, “of course. I will tell them when we see again.”

“Good”, Ola said and frowned, “did we got a signal just a while ago?” Iceland startled, glancing at the little device although it wouldn’t show any missed signals. He tried to remember if he had heard something.

“I think yes”, he said, recalling the sound he had completely ignored in favour to listen the man.

“Great”, Ola said, “just when I tell you how experienced I am with following orders, we completely miss one. Quite bad thing for an officer.”

“We can tell them we were out of the signal rech”, Iceland muttered and pushed the small button that would send a signal to mission leader that they requested the latest order again. It was there just for case that the device lost signal or beginners missed the order. It took just few seconds for them to receive reply.

“Back to base”, Ola said with a frown, “something has really happened.”

“Still no emergency signal”, Iceland noted.

“That is good at least, but let’s hurry up anyway.” Iceland nodded and followed after Ola, holding his gun on his side and the small equipment bag on his back. The other team had already left when they got the first signal, but when Ola and Iceland arrived at the base camp, few others arrived at the same time so they were not too late. They gave long looks at Jørgen who was covered on paint from the paintball guns they used instead of real weapons.

“He refused to surrender”, Kjerstina explained with a shrug.

“But he has pain on his back too!”

“He tried to run”, Jens continued, “we acted as told.”

“Yeah sure, you just wanted to mess my clothes”, Jørgen muttered, giving the pair bad looks that lost their power a bit because he was still smiling. The moment was interrupted by Sigrid who ran out from the base camp tent. She had been one of the mission leaders, so it made sense she already knew what was going on, and her excited smile was enough to tell it wasn’t anything bad. Iceland had already guessed so when he saw the whole team being okay.

“Guess what!” she yelled, making Anna sigh for her lack of proper behaving.

“I know the news excites you, lieutenant Fredheim, but try to keep your calm”, captain Thomassen noted and stepped out too, “now that everybody is here…”

“Captain!”

“Yes, lieutenant?”

“I ask for permission to reveal the news, captain!” Sigrid said, smiling but otherwise acting for once just like she was supposed.

“Very well, lieutenant”, the captain nodded, and Sigrid turned to face her team.

“Team, we have received note from the barracks to return immediately due of an unexpected visit of general Holgersen and general Andersen! They wish to meet and give demonstration to the whole school so our presence is needed.” The shock, surprise and excitement on team mates’ faces was enough to tell Iceland this was something very special. It had to be if ten best officers in Norwegian military cancelled their training and drop their official acting for a while. Iceland couldn’t say he was that excited. He didn’t know any generals, although small voice in his mind reminded him that those were the names Norway and Denmark were currently using when dealing with humans.

“It can’t be…”, he muttered and shook his head to get rid of that thought. The rules were rules. No matter how much he wanted to see his family, they were not going to show up until the time was up. Norway always followed his own rules unless there was something dangerous going on, but so far that Iceland knew, he was not in danger. Norway would have no reason to just randomly pop up to see him.


	10. General's secret

“They are both the best we have”, Sigrid said with almost dreaming tone, “the highest officers. Like, can you even imagine that? They are the best. Handsome too, and surprisingly young looking, like both would easily pass under thirty with no problem. They got the skills and looks, and they are so nice too! Like when you talk to them they actually act like you are a real human being.”

“I am bit concerned about your usual interactions with humans if you call that being ‘so nice’”, Jørgen commented with slightly amazed tone, although he too was whispering about generals like they were his personal idols. Probably they were that.

“I mean compared to other high-level officers”, Sigrid corrected herself, “all the others are always so stern and boring and…”

“What you mean?” Anna asked, making another woman shut up fast. The whole team was sitting on back of the troop transport truck, but as there were space only for ten, their team leader was sitting on driver’s side and couldn’t take a part of the conversation.

“I didn’t mean you”, Sigrid said, rolling her eyes when Anna gave her a long look, “you are okay, I guess, Anna.”

“Use surname, Friedheim.”

“I take back what I just said”, Sigrid muttered, making few other team mates to laugh. For Iceland’s surprise, Anna seemed to not mind about that too much although she tended to be strict on rules. She only sighed and shook her head, muttering something about Sigrid showing bad example to everybody. Sigrid didn’t care and soon she was back on her idolizing the generals. Iceland sighed, already tired of hearing about it all. Ola, who was sitting next to him, snorted and clasped his shoulder.

“Are you not a fan of our generals?” he asked with humour in his voice. Iceland shrugged.

“I have never met them”, he admitted, “I don’t usually go around getting over excited about people I have never ever met.” He meant his words only for Ola, but they were all sitting close to each other so Kjerstina on his other side heard too. She gasped.

“This will be your first time?” she asked like it was a big deal, “goodness, you will be amazed when you see their demonstration!”

“Somebody having their first time?” Sigrid asked and soon all the eyes were focused on Iceland, who wasn’t too excited about getting that attention.

“Yeah”, he muttered, hoping that was enough to get his peace back.

“You will love it!” Sigrid said with an excited smile, “it is their thing, the demonstration I mean. They do it every time they visit the school or any training barracks, and it is so cool. I have seen it already twice and I am in awe every time.”

“Nobody else do stuff like that”, Jörgen added, “and they don’t need to. They just want to be nice and, you know, give us lower levels something to praise about.”

“What you mean by demonstration?” Iceland asked with a frown. It didn’t take him a long to get a reply.

“They do traditional sparring!” Sigrid said so loudly Anna hushed at her, “sorry, Anna. Yeah, I meant, they will fight with real swords and all. Or with axes. I heard they can even do archery and throw spears, but usually they demonstrate sword fighting.”

“It is one of the coolest things I have ever seen”, Jørgen noted.

“They are both so skilled”, Kjerstina said and got few agreeing nods from others, “I heard they started to train sword fighting when they were both young and it became their shared hobby later. I haven’t met many people who still appreciate traditional things like that.”

“I would follow them to hell and back anyway, but after that show I would do it happily and be sure we gonna win”, Sigrid said with a small sigh and glanced at the woman next to her, “what, Anna? You would follow them to hell too, right?”

“They are my generals, of course I follow them wherever they want me to follow”, Anna replied with a small sigh, “but could you please calm down now?”

“And isn’t Hell in Norway anyway?” Jørgen asked, “I don’t think we need to invade it if it is already ours.”

“You are a Norwegian, Jørgen, you are not allowed to make that joke.”

“You are spoiling all the fun, Jens”, Jørgen said, “typical Dane.”

“Half-Dane.”

“Even worse.”

“Just be happy I am on your side!” Jens said back, making the whole truck laugh again. The topic changed smoothly, and Iceland was happy to get back to his own thoughts without being the focus of attention. The rest of the travel he mostly just snoozed off, trying to catch some sleep he hadn’t got last night on the camp. It has been three months already, but he was still having ridiculously lot of problems with sleeping. It seemed like his mind and body couldn’t rest when he was away from his land and without other nations around him, but he didn’t really understand that. He hadn’t have such problems in Copenhagen, why would he had now?

When they arrived back to the school, the team marched to their room and started to change into their uniforms with such well-organized manner that was only possible for highly trained officers. Iceland thought he finally understood why they had to keep their uniforms in perfect condition all the time although they rarely used the official ones, preferring simpler training uniforms for their normal duties. It was all because some generals liked to show up unannounced, Iceland thought and dressed up as quickly he could. Because he didn’t have official military tittle, but it would have been weird for him to be in the program without one, Norway had taken care of his uniform. Iceland wasn’t really sure what all the marks meant, but it had to mean something because nobody took a second glance on him or seemed confused. They only checked that they looked okay themselves and then marched out with good order, following captain Thomassen’s guidance. They settled on row with other staff and students of the school, waiting for the generals to arrive. The officers stood calm, but there was the overall excitement and impatience of waiting in the air. Few people switched their weight from leg to leg, trying to do it without breaking their stiff posture. Somebody coughed. Somebody else tried to not start to rub hands nervously.

“Attention!” the colonel suddenly yelled with a strong, authority filled voice, and all the troops snapped into position. She marched past the rows with few other higher-level officers following behind her, Iceland only recognized sergeant Holm and lieutenant Rønning, and troops saluted for them. Iceland could hear voices from the gate, and he knew the generals had arrived, but they were not allowed to turn to look and stare. He would have to wait until the visitors were almost exactly front of him before he would see them, but he did have other senses too. Carefully, almost not daring, the Icelandic nation focused on his senses, searching for the familiar sensation telling him that other personifications would be near him. Usually he would have sensed his brother kilometres away, but he wasn’t on his own land. It made it harder to sense others, and when everything around him was Norway it was even harder to say if he was sensing the personification or just the land itself. The amount of people around him made it difficult too, and soon Iceland had to give up without being sure if he had sensed anything at all.

The generals and their company moved closer. Iceland could hear the sounds of the troops saluting to them, and the excitement grew. Sigrid had clear problems to keep herself completely still, and Iceland already knew that in any other situation she would be jumping up and down like the biggest fan. It was only the results of her training that she managed to limit her excitement on moving her fingers against her thigh.

Iceland followed others and saluted when the generals walked in front of their team. Iceland wasn’t positioned on front row, and most of his team mates were bit taller than him, so it took him a while before he saw the visitors. When he did see them, his breathing stopped and heart beat just a bit faster because the moment he saw his brother was really there the feeling of familiarity and being safe overcame him. He had already admitted he missed his family, but he hadn’t been prepared of such strong feeling of finally everything being right again. His posture kept straight and hand raised for a salute, but his eyes followed the generals differently now.

Denmark and Norway were both wearing uniforms with medals hanging in front and gold buttons shining. Their boots were cleaned, everything made look perfect and the swords on their hips seemed to be real ones instead of ceremonial replicas. Iceland had seen them like that before too, so he didn’t pay much attention on how they looked. It only mattered that they were there.

Norway seemed to be searching for something, doing is so secretly he just could, and Iceland wasn’t surprised when his search ended once his eyes met Iceland’s.

“Brother”, Iceland said with only moving his lips. Norway seemed to understand because he nodded with barely noticeable movement and his lips turned slightly up. He moved his hand, fingers brushing Denmark’s arm, and somehow the Dane understood that small gesture and turned to look, finding Iceland easily. Just as Norway, he didn’t do anything to cause attention, but his smile widened.

They had to keep going so Iceland only followed them with his eyes until he couldn’t see them anymore, and followed the others when the troops walked to the training area and gathered around the field. The occasion seemed to turn slightly more informal because Iceland noticed the teams and troops mixing up slightly and the staff stayed among the students. Only the generals and their company made a difference by standing on platform where everybody could see them. Iceland noticed his brother talking with the colonel, the topic and words apparently pleasing the woman because her posture was one of being proud. Denmark wasn’t engaged in the conversation, instead he was looking around seemed to be slightly alert, which Iceland assumed was just an old habit hard to die. With this many people around, especially them being soldiers that were not Danes, Denmark was bound to be slightly alarmed even when it was all about Norway. Or so Iceland thought.

“Attention!” the colonel called, leaning toward the microphone so everybody could hear her, “as you have heard, and seen, today we have an honour to welcome two of our generals, general Holgersen and general Andersen, to our school. Their visit may be unexpected, but nevertheless are we proud and happy to see them here today. Welcome!” The audience applauded, and Norway moved to the microphone with the colonel saluting to him.

“Thank you, colonel”, he said and looked over the audience, “it is my, and general Andersen’s, honour to be welcomed today.”

“Isn’t he just perfect”, Sigrid whispered, snapping out the Icelander from his thoughts. He frowned and gave the woman a look she didn’t even notice.

“All he is doing is just to speak”, he noted.

“He does speaking perfectly”, Sigrid said without hesitation. She, like most of the people around, were looking at the general and eagerly listening every word he said.

“I am starting to understand what he meant by his people being loyal”, he muttered to himself, “they are all almost…. creepily attracted.”  Iceland wondered if he caused same reaction among his own people. He couldn’t really recall about noticing anything like that, but then again, he rarely went around parading in uniforms like his brother and Denmark apparently did.

“…I am also happy to let you know that we will indeed perform the normal demonstration today”, Norway continued and paused because his words were immediately followed by loud applauding, “isn’t that right, general Andersen?” Denmark nodded and saluted to Norway almost in mocking way.  

“I hope your sword hand hasn’t got stiff since the last time”, Denmark said, loud enough for the microphone to catch his words.

“My hand is good enough to beat you”, Norway noted. The laugh from the audience sounded like the conversations like that between the generals were normal. It indeed sounded like normal joking, but Iceland knew better and easily recognized the way how his brother and the Dane flirted. He groaned and rolled his eyes.

“Get a room”, he muttered under his breath, although he felt warmer inside when he heard their voices. It was good to see they were doing okay. Of course, Iceland hadn’t been thinking that they wouldn’t be okay, but he was feeling better when he saw it was so. He thought he maybe understood now why Norway and Denmark kept saying they were not completely in ease before they had seen everything being alright.

“I have been training you know! Just to get top of you”, Denmark said, smiling widely. Iceland really loved to see them again, but now he started to also wonder if he should run before he got too embarrassed over his family. Too bad, the people were standing close to each other and it would have been literally impossible to get out without shoving and pushing his way through the masses. It was easier to just stay where he was.

“You will love this”, Sigrid said when few officers draw a big circle on the sand and the generals started to stretch their arms and prepare for the fight.

“I am not sure about that”, Iceland muttered, but the woman was too busy with watching. The colonel had got the honour to be referee and she stood on platform, checking that both nations were on their position and with their swords.

“Till the first blood!” she said, holding her arm up, “take your position, ready, go!”

“They are fighting until first blood?” Iceland asked, suddenly much more interested in the fight again.

“Yeah, but don’t worry”, Sigrid said like it wasn’t a big deal, “they are both really good. The first blood will be just a scratch or something.”

“Just a scratch?” Iceland hissed and stared at the two Scandinavians who were now engaged into very serious looking sword fight, “I am gonna have some heavy talk with those two idiots.”

“Did you say something?”

“No”, Iceland shook his head, his attention completely in the fight. He had seen them both fighting hundreds of times, sometimes seriously sometimes just for fun. He could easily see that although it looked like they were just showing off, they were actually both trying to be better than another. It was just that the centuries of fighting together had honeyed their skills to the point it looked more like an art, like dancing. Their movements locked together perfectly, there were always next attack coming, carefully planned to follow a blocking or attack. They knew how the other worked, all the strengths and weak points. It might have looked like a show, but it was all pure skills. Denmark smiled, like he often did when fighting, but Norway had cold and calculating look on his face. Both were carefully avoiding revealing their next movement to their partner, which probably was hard as they knew each other’s bodies so well.

“Get that room…”, Iceland muttered when the fighters’ bodies pressed together while they tried to get the upper hand. The swords clanked against each other and the audience gasped when Denmark managed to fling Norway’s sword off his hand. It dropped behind them, and Norway quickly moved away to avoid the blade targeted on his chest. Normally, they would have stopped their sparring there, but this time it was for the first blood and the first blood hadn’t been drawn yet. Denmark didn’t hesitate to go after the now weaponless Norwegian, who could only dodge the attacks. He was doing it well until he suddenly turned and grabbed the Dane’s arm instead of moving away from the attack. The closeness made it impossible to use the heavy and long weapon, so Norway managed to hit the Danish man on stomach with his fist. He used the moment of confusion to get his sword back and raised it just in time to block the coming attack. His hit earlier had hurt Denmark, he was slightly leaning more to the left, and Norway didn’t hesitate to use that advance. With a smooth movement he moved the sword on his left arm in middle of attack and managed to hit the arm Denmark raised to protect his hurt side. The blade found skin and draw blood.

“First blood!” the colonel yelled, and Norway raised his sword to show the few drops of blood on his blade, “congratulations, general Holgersen, wonderful fight.”

“Thank you”, Norway said and turned to the Dane, raising his hand to the salute, “good job, Andersen, you have got better.” Denmark grinned, holding his arm up to stop the bleeding.

“Same to you”, he said with excited grin, “someday you gonna get too proud and then I can get you to kneel down for me.”

“You may try”, Norway replied. They were both breathing heavily, sweat and sand messing their uniforms. The audience clapped wildly, few brave ones yelling praises to the generals to show their gratitude and admiration. The end of fight seemed to be a cue to leave because the troops started to walk away, leaving in much more informal way than they had arrived. Iceland followed others, keeping close to Sigrid who didn’t even bother to hide her excitement.

“Aren’t they wonderful?” she said, “you know, I have been shipping them since I saw them for the first time.”

“What?” Iceland said, getting out of his thoughts about yelling at Denmark and Norway about their stupid fighting habits. He gave the woman a long look.

“Shipping, you know”, Sigrid said, “they are my otp. Don’t tell me you don’t know about this stuff, you are too young to not know.”

“Is this some internet thing again?” Iceland asked and got an excited nod back.

“You know, shipping?” Sigrid said, “like I think they should be together.”

“What?”

“Like romantically.”

“What?” Iceland said, adding good amount of shock into his voice. Sigrid rolled his eyes.

“Just watch that tension between them”, she said, “they are basically flirting all the time they are in the same place. That can’t be just ‘being friends and colleagues’.”

“I have no idea what you are talking about”, Iceland said, but in his mind he knew he hadn’t been the only one thinking the Scandinavians should get a room. He had to fight against the embarrassing blush getting on his cheeks.

“But you don’t seem to be excited at all”, Sigrid noted and frowned, “I have never seen anybody leaving the demonstration without awe on their face. Were you watching at all?”

“Yeah, I was.”

“So what you think?”

“It was okay.”

“Just okay?” Iceland frowned and thought a moment. He couldn’t really wake the excitement anymore, Sigrid wasn’t an idiot, but he felt like the woman was starting to think something was weird. Iceland couldn’t really afford losing any contact with the team now, especially not with the person who was giving his so much connection to others. Sigrid really was the one keeping the team together with her social behaviour and easy-going nature. Iceland sighed.

“Can you keep a secret?” he asked seriously, and the woman nodded despite of the clear confusion on her face. Iceland checked quickly that there was nobody other too close, and then leaned closer to the woman, “general Holgersen is my brother.”

“What?” Sigrid said, moving her hands against her mouth, “you kidding?”

“No, he really is”, Iceland said, “but it is a secret.”

“Of course”, the woman said, collecting herself quickly, “I can imagine how much…. conflict it would cause to know general’s brother is here. Makes sense, really. But you have different surname, and you are Icelandic…”

“Same dad, different mothers”, Iceland said, “but we always felt strongly about our brotherhood. He basically raised me. And the name…”

“Oh, I got it!” Sigrid said, “it is the first trick in the book; use the name of somebody you know if you are going under disguise. That way you sound natural when you say it, so you use general Andersen’s surname.”

“Exactly”, Iceland said, glad about Sigrid being so clever she gave him all the answers before he came up with them.

“So, does this mean my otp is true?”

“You know, that is kinda creepy.” Sigrid only shrugged, staying quiet because she spotted Lieutenant Rønning walking toward them. She moved into position, Iceland following her example when it was clear the officer was going to talk with them.

“Andersen”, the lieutenant said without greeting, “you are expected in the colonel’s office.”

“Of course, thank you”, Iceland replied, but the lieutenant just left without sparing another glance at him. She seemed to trust the nation would find his way just himself.

“Say hi to your brother”, Sigrid whispered, and Iceland nodded shortly before making his way to the colonel’s office. There were much lesser people there and now he knew Denmark and Norway were there, so he could sense their presence much better. Those mixed together, creating familiar harmony Iceland knew well. He hurried a bit, almost missing the colonel who was standing outside of her office. She was alone that time, her hard eyes observing the Icelander.

“Island”, she said, “I should let you know that meetings like this are usually strictly forbidden, as you are merely a student in my school, but general Holgersen has expressed his deepest will to meet with you personally, and I can’t go against the direct orders from my supervisor and nation.”

“I understand”, Iceland said.

“Very well”, the colonel replied with a nod, “officially you were asked to come here as a scripted for the discussion me and sergeant Holms had with the generals. All you did was to sit down and write a sketch of everything we talked. It was a classified meeting, so you are not allowed to speak about any details. Afterwards, when the generals left, we discussed about your extra lessons on weaponry. Take care to give that explanation to anybody asking for the reasons for our meeting and why it lasted so long. You did not meet or personally talked with the generals today.”

“Understood”, Iceland said, hoping the colonel would let him go already.  His family was just behind the door and he hadn’t seen them for three months.

“Good”, the colonel said, “you are free to go.”

“Thank you”, Iceland said with a quick salute, and pushed the door open. He was greeted with the familiar presences filling up the whole room and he looked over to the Scandinavians. They were both sitting on the wide window sill and they had took off their uniform jackets. Norway held Denmark’s hand, wrapping up the cut on his wrist while the Dane leaned closer to him, his lips almost touching the Norwegian’s hair. The cut hadn’t been that bad, it was probably already healing, so taking care of it was meaningless. This time, however, Iceland didn’t question the gesture. Norway had already told him and Denmark showed him; it was all to show they cared.

“Let me”, he said suddenly and marched closer, “you are making it too tight. You are supposed to cover the wound, not stop the blood circulation, and cuts are supposed to get some air for better healing.” He kneeled down, took the Dane’s hand and started to fix the bandage over almost completely healed wound. He didn’t look up, but if he had he would have seen the looks the Scandinavians were giving over his head and how the Dane was very close to get tears simply because the emotional overwhelming and happiness.

“I see”, Norway said with a hint of humour in his voice when he looked at the ready work, “you are right. It is better that way.”

“It is perfect”, Denmark said softly. Iceland finally really looked at them, seeing both giving him smiles before Norway moved on the floor and wrapped his arms around the Icelander for tight hug. The Dane followed quickly, joining their hug and making the Icelander being surrounded by the warmth and the sweet familiarity. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“We have been missing you”, Norway whispered, “it has been long three months.”

“What is three months for immortals?” Iceland asked, holding back tears.

“Eternity, when you are missing somebody dear”, Norway replied, gently rubbing the Icelander’s back while Denmark ruffled his silvery hair. Iceland sighed.

“I have been missing you too”, he said quietly, “but I am going to give this hug 30 seconds and then I am going to yell at you about your stupid till the first blood fight.”

“Excuse me, I haven’t booked any scolding for this day”, Norway said.

“Oh, shut up”, Iceland replied and let the hug last a bit longer, knowing that the older nations were enjoying his presence just like he was enjoying them, and then he pushed away, “seriously? To fight till the first blood? Are you out of your damn mind?”

“Not so far that I know”, Norway replied.

“What about if you hit too hard someday?” Iceland asked angrily, “you know about the theory!”

“The one they came up during the world war?” Norway asked, getting an angry nod back, “it is just a theory and never proofed to be more than a thought from man with too much time on his hands. It should not matter who is holding the weapon, we only die if our people and culture dies.”

“But it would be true!” Iceland said, “even Germany thought there was a possibility for nations being able to kill another nation if they were one to give the killing blow. Finland told me that’s why he…”

“But we will not hurt each other so badly”, Norway said, “give some respect for our skills, and you saw Denmark’s wound. It healed normally even when it was from my sword.”

“You can’t be sure, Iceland hissed, crossing his arms and giving both nations bad looks, “what if you make a mistake? One of you end up… You know.”

“We will not”, Norway said, “trust me. Have I ever lied to you? Would you really think I set the Dane in that kind of danger or he would set me in danger?” Iceland hesitated, but he wasn’t going to just drop the topic like that.

“Noregur”, he said, this time with quieter voice, “I don’t want to lose anybody.” Quiet and serious tone seemed to work on Norwegian much better than yelling because his eyes widened, and he quickly glanced at Denmark before replying.

“Of course”, he said, sounding weirdly confused, “I understand. We will not fight like that anymore, if you don’t want us to do so.”

“Yeah”, Denmark said, looking more fascinated than worried. He leaned closer and whispered to Iceland, “I think you are finally discovering your true power over Nor. Good job.”

“I can hear you. I am sitting right here”, Norway said, getting a sheepish smile back from the Dane, “well, tell me how you have been, Island. Any of your team mates caught your attention yet?”

“I am not gonna tell you anything about that”, Iceland said, “one of them sent you greetings.”

“You told them I am your brother?”

“I had to. It was the only good answer I had in that situation”, Iceland said, “she could be your spy anyway.”

“I am not going to tell you anything about that, but do tell her I sent greetings back”, Norway said and smirked, “I am glad to see you are doing well.”

“Is my land okay?”

“It is doing just fine”, Denmark said, “your assistants sent greetings. Regnhilde’s pregnancy is going well! She told me to tell you that she is excited to become a mother for real.”

“That’s nice…. What you mean by becoming mother for real? Has she been a not real mother till now?” Iceland frowned.

“Um, nothing”, Denmark said and changed topic, “have you learnt anything cool?”

“Nothing that you think is cool”, Iceland said, “we sit in the lections about leading and strategy, and then we go around forest playing war.”

“That sounds quite cool, actually”, Denmark noted and grinned, “remember, Nor, when we…”

“I don’t think it is right moment to remember that”, Norway said calmly.

“I wasn’t going to say anything like that”, Denmark noted and winked, “Nor gets always so funny when he sees me in uniform.”

“I thought it was clear we are here to meet Island, not get any strange ideas into your head”, Norway replied, giving the Dane a look that seemed to have very little of effect.

“See? He just can’t resist this”, Denmark said and gestured toward himself while winking for the Norwegian, who only blankly stared back. Iceland sighed and rolled his eyes.

“I am happy you two are doing okay”, he said, “but I don’t need to know more than that. I already saw your _flirt_ at front of the whole school, so I got the idea. Really. Everybody got that. My team mate thinks you two are a pair.”

“Well, she is not wrong!”

“I would still prefer to not hear details”, Iceland said, “what are you two even doing here? I thought the rules said no contact.”

“It said you are not allowed to contact us”, Norway noted, “nothing about us contacting you. And anyway, we just happened to be around and decided to pay a visit to our old school. Nothing suspicious about that.”

“Sure”, Iceland muttered. He didn’t actually remember the exact rules anymore, so he just accepted what Norway said.

“I need to know my nation is treating my little brother well”, Norway continued and petted the Icelander’s hair, “you seem to be healthy.” Iceland shrugged.

“It is been okay”, he said, “you know. There is one Ola Nordmann in my team.”

“How nice.”

“He is more Norway than you”, Iceland said, hiding a smirk sneaking on his lips, “he doesn’t go around playing with Danes. He has right name too.” Norway snorted and rolled his eyes.

“I am real Norway”, he said, almost sounding childish while defending himself like that.

“Also, playing with Danes is traditional Norwegian thing, you know”, Denmark added and seemed to be amused of the whole talk, “Nor told me. Apparently, I would be a freaking mess of disasters otherwise.”

“What you keep telling him?” Iceland asked, glancing at Norway who just shrugged.

“By the way, have you seen any of your agents around here?” Denmark suddenly asked, and Iceland frowned before shaking his head.

“No. Why?”

“I thought maybe they would like to have a second round of follow the Dane game”, Denmark smirked. Iceland glanced at his brother who seemed to give the question much more attention than he would usually had. Iceland frowned and wondered if something was going on.

“Nor?” he asked.

“I merely wondered if they would show up and try to help you”, the Norwegian said without asking what the Icelander wanted to know. Iceland shook his head. He didn’t think Norway looked like he was telling the truth, and Iceland remembered the weird things going on just before he left his country.

“I am not a cheater, you know it”, he said, “Nor, is this about the thing you and Denmark were doing in my land?”

“Yes.”

“Okay”, Iceland nodded

“Do you want me to tell you more now?” Norway asked, but Iceland shook his head.

“Am I or my people in danger?” he asked

“No”, Norway said.

“Then I don’t need to know”, he said. He didn’t have time for any more problems. It was already hard enough to try to win the bet without having more mess to deal with. He could see Norway was lying, it was the small just visible look on his face when he answered that. Iceland knew his brother. That’s why he knew he was lying, but he still said he didn’t need to know. There had to be a reason why Norway didn’t tell him, and Iceland trusted his brother more than anybody.

“Would you like to tell us more about your training?” Norway asked and glanced at the Dane, “I think Dan was supposed to bring snacks.”

“And I damn did!” Denmark said loudly and pulled a container from under his jacket. Iceland hadn’t noticed either of them carrying bags earlier, but he assumed somebody else had just carried that for them. It wasn’t like he had actually paid much attention to anything else than his family right then. They ended up having a poor kind of dinner, but still nice one, there in the colonel’s office. Iceland felt bit bad about using her room, but Norway didn’t seem to care at all, so he didn’t mention it. They talked for hours, going from Iceland’s training to the newest family news. Apparently, Finland and Sweden had had quite good time during the past three months and Iceland wasn’t surprised to hear they had managed to create some kind of absurd scheme by switching places for a while. It seemed that the whole idea of it was to piss off some politicians they didn’t like, but Iceland wasn’t sure if they just did it for fun or had they honestly mixed up dates, ended up to each other’s country and then just started to work there. Iceland also got detailed information from his own country, although it sounded like Norway’s help hadn’t been really needed or at least he didn’t mention many times he had been working for Icelandic government. Iceland was surprised how much time they were given, because when he finally said goodbyes to the Scandinavians, including hugs that Norway and Denmark were eager to get, it was already an early evening.

“He seems to be okay”, Norway muttered when the Icelander had left, and collected the leftovers back into the container. He startled when he heard a soft sniff coming from the Dane’s direction and sharply turned to look at him, finding the man holding up the arm Iceland had wrapped and a single tear falling from his eye.

“Dan?”

“He cares about me”, Denmark said.

“Of course, he cares about you. Dan, why are you crying over…” Denmark had always had strong emotions and his solution to get over of the overwhelming feelings caused by realizing that Iceland cared about him, was to kiss the Norwegian man. Norway, who hadn’t been kissed for a while simply because there had been no time for kisses, didn’t hesitate to reply. They didn’t hear the door opening and only the colonel clearing his throat made them move away from each other.

“With all respect, my nation”, the colonel said and threw a bad look at the Dane’s direction, “I would like to remind you on the question I asked few years ago about the Dane.” Norway let his hand to move down from the said Dane’s cheek and turned to face the woman.

“The answer is still same, colonel”, he said, “I am rather happy with him.”

“Very well”, the woman replied, sounding slightly disappointed and ignoring the grin Denmark was giving her, “I assume you found your brother well and healthy.”

“Indeed”, Norway said, “but I need to discus with you about something.”

“Anything you wish.” The colonel took a seat she usually offered for people visiting her, but Norway happened to be sitting in her usual seat and she didn’t want to ask the nation to move.

“There seems to be something strange going on”, Norway started, “I already told you most of the details and how this is aimed on Island, but now I… have heard information that could mean we have a traitor among us.”

“Traitor”, colonel repeated and frowned, “I have run back ground checks already twice and nothing suspicious have come up.”

“I trust you on this”, Norway said, “but could you run checks one more time?”

“Of course.”

“Thank you”, Norway nodded, “I also have to advice you to keep close eye to any Icelanders in the school. It is possible that our enemies are trying to get in, and we are working against highly skilled agents. Keep things on eye, but if you notice anything suspicious do not act before you have contacted me.”

“Understood”, the colonel said. Norway felt Denmark’s fingers brushing his palm and he took the offered hand.

“I am grateful to have your loyalty”, he told the colonel, “Island is the most important I have. Take care of him.” This time the colonel stood up, raising her hand for the salute as the Norwegian personification moved up from the chair and made his way to the door, Denmark following close after him.

“It is my honour to serve my nation”, she said with warm and honest tone. Norway smiled back, and with a nod and salute he left. There weren’t many people around that late and they knew their way, so they managed to get out of the school without gaining attention. Only once Norway stopped and addressed a person looking at him.

“I hoped I would see you”, he said, and the person nodded quietly, “it seems that you are doing very good job. My brother has no idea who you are, and this is keeping him busy enough to stay out of the danger. Keep following the previous orders and take care of my brother.” The person nodded again and saluted. Norway and Denmark both replied for that, and quickly left before anybody would see them.

****

For the first time in months, Iceland waked up completely well-rested and out of habit he immediately denied it being because he had seen Denmark and Norway last evening. He just happened to be more relaxed because they had been granted free morning due to the fact they had ended their training earlier on previous day and captain Thomassen needed a moment to come up with something new.

“For the last time, Sigrid”, Iceland said with bored tone while waiting for his turn to pick up the breakfast, “I am not going to tell you anything about my brother’s personal life.”

“Not even a small hint?”

“Would it be counted as treason?” Iceland asked nonchalantly, “you know, he is highest general.” That finally made the woman think for a moment and she shrugged.

“I don’t think so”, she said, “it should be something about the nation, not just one man’s personal life, no matter how important he is.”

“Oh, you have no idea”, Iceland muttered under his breath and picked up a tray.

“Did you say something?”

“Just that I am still not gonna tell anything”, Iceland said, “but he did send you greetings back.”

“Really?”

“Yeah”, Iceland muttered, and the woman smiled happily, “don’t get too excited now.”

“I am not getting too excited”, Sigrid replied but also smiled more, “hey, I am gonna check quickly what Anna wants for breakfast. Can you hold place for me?”

“You know everybody hates it when somebody holds place in breakfast line… Sigrid?... Okay, fine. I hold place”, Iceland sighed and picked up another tray to show that there was place for one more. He started to pick up glasses and other stuff as the line moved, trying to remember what kind of stuff the women liked in case Sigrid would not be back in time. He was mostly thinking about the yesterday, wondering why his brother was lying, what was really going on and how he would find the spy. He was so deeply in his thoughts that he didn’t notice the person standing next to him before he almost knocked the fruit basket out of her arms. Iceland noticed the kitchen staff uniform the woman was wearing and felt embarrassed about being so deep in his own thoughts to not notice he was disturbing somebody’s work.

“I am sorry, I did not…”, he said and looked up, frowning when he recognized the woman, “…Kristfríður?”


	11. Agent's secret

“What are you doing here?” Iceland asked. Looking at the agent with surprise showing on his face. It had been quite long time ago since he had seen her last time and she had definitely changed since then. Gone was the nervous young woman who had got her first field work with her nation involved, and the woman replacing her was serious, professional and very confident in herself. She smiled and acted like nothing was weird, fixing the fruit basket and continuing to clean of some mess the busy breakfast customers had left. 

“I just came to see how you are doing”, she said and winked, “it is my job.”

“I thought it was agreed that nobody is to follow me”, Iceland said, easily recalling the talk he had had with his boss about the topic. Nobody of his family liked to be watched over like that by the agents and Iceland too had started to dislike the idea once he had found out about it. That was probably the reason he hadn’t been told about the agents first at all, other Nordics had been not very kind with the ways to show they disagreed with it. 

“You are too important to be left alone”, the woman replied.

“But…”, Iceland started but was interrupted when he realized the whole line was standing because of him, and the cafeteria wasn’t ideal place for that discussion in any way.

“I will talk to you later”, the woman said and winked again, “I will find you, don’t worry.”

“Okay”, Iceland muttered, hesitating to give such a promise. Denmark had asked about the agents and Iceland felt like he should not agree to meet the woman again, but he didn’t really have reason to decline so he just nodded. The woman smiled, turning to back to the work just when Sigrid returned.

“Thanks”, she said and took her place, “Anna said I can decide.”

“Okay.”

“Who was that?” she asked and without looking Iceland knew she was pointing at the Icelandic agent hurrying away. 

“Just an old…”, Iceland hesitated, “acquaintance.” He reached to pick up salad and didn’t notice the look the woman was giving him.

“You know, you look bit tense”, she said, “it is not like, you know ‘friend’?” Now Iceland looked up and gave the woman a long look.

“What that even means?” he asked.

“Well, there are friends and ‘friends’”, Sigrid said, moving on and picking up food on her tray.  Only small change in her tone made difference between the words, and Iceland had no idea what that meant. He squinted at the woman and snorted.

“Whatever”, he said, “just focus on figuring out what Anna will like to eat.”

“Oh, I know what she likes to eat”, Sigrid replied with a cheerful tone. Iceland shrugged and collected the rest of his own breakfast before joining others at the table they had unofficially declared theirs. It seemed that nobody had really took the extra free morning as a chance to sleep in so most of the team was either there enjoying their breakfast or somewhere else doing their own training. Iceland didn’t have any personal training plans so and he wasn’t really feeling like he was in social mood so he mostly just listened Sigrid and Jørgen talking about some camp they had both been in few years ago and Kjerstina was explaining the plot of a movie she liked because she couldn’t remember the name and Lars-Emil and Freyr both said it would bug them forever if they didn’t figure it out right then. Anna and Ola were both writing notes from their material and mostly ignoring others. It was quite normal breakfast and Iceland let himself to drown back into his own thoughts, wondering about why the agent were there, what his brother was doing and who in the team wasn’t what they were saying they were. Big questions and Iceland had no answers.

“Good morning, team!” the captain Thomassen managed to startle the whole team once and they struggled to get up quickly for proper salutation, “no, not at breakfast table. Just sit down.”

“Yes, sir”, Anna said and sat back down. She had been the fastest to react to the captain’s surprise showing up and seemed to be least startled about it. Iceland had already figured out she had slightly higher rank than others, but he had also assumed it had to be lower than the one their captain had. That was one reason why she was still staying on the list of the main suspects. She was different from others, but not too different. Suspicious. 

The captain took a free seat opposite the Icelandic nation and his action caused slight tension in the group. Usually their team leader only ate with them during mission trainings or if he wanted to go through something during dinner or lunch. Having him with them for breakfast had never happened before and it seemed that the whole team, Anna excluded, was unsure about how to react for that. The captain however was in good mood and sipped his breakfast coffee like nothing was wrong.

“I actually wanted to speak with you, Andersen”, he said and looked at the Icelander with a slight smile on his lips, “I tried to find you yesterday, but it seems like colonel and generals were holding their meeting late into evening.”

“Well, yeah”, Iceland said, “it was lot of things to write down.”

“I am sure of that”, the captain said, “I have also had the honour to be scripter of few meetings in my younger days. I still remember the wrist pain following that.  Anyway, I think colonel mentioned something about extra classes on weaponry?” 

“Yes, she did”, Iceland said, remembering that the colonel had mentioned that as one of the reasons for Iceland staying in her office so late. Of course, they had never talked about it, but Iceland was smart enough to improvise. 

“Well, usually we let everybody to decide themselves what they want to do during the personal training time”, captain continued, and Iceland nodded, “but your previous training didn’t include… let’s say more practical weapon training, we decided to offer you some extra lessons on that. Just to make sure you get all the skills. Not saying that tech department isn’t doing good job, but there is much more in military than playing with computers.”

“Uh…”

“So, I volunteered to give you some lessons during our free time”, captain said with a smile, “what you say? You can still decline and use your time for something else.”

“Say yes”, Sigrid hissed, and Iceland suddenly became very aware of the fact that the whole team was listening the conversation and being rather interested on it. He also remembered that captain Thomassen happened to be very respected man among them, and declining the offer was probably going to backfire. Iceland felt like the whole thing was carefully planned in way he had to agree on the lessons, but he had no idea who would ever bother to make such plans. His brother, probably. 

“Sounds good”, he said with a nod.

“Perfect”, the captain said, “we will meet today after dinner for our first lesson, and that reminds me”, he turned to look at others, “I decided that we should have a running test today, I hope none of you had too heavy breakfast.”

“Yes, sir”, the team replied with varying tones of acceptance.

 

***** 

“Perfect, you are just on time”, captain Thomassen said when he saw the Icelander walking closer. 

“Yes, sir”, Iceland replied, raising his hand for salutation.

“Impressive, when one thinks about the fact that I forgot to tell you where we are going to meet.”

“It wasn’t hard to guess that weaponry training would be done at the shooting range, sir”, Iceland said, getting a smile back from the captain.

“Exactly”, he said and leaned slightly against the wall, “well, we could start with you dropping that ‘sir’ thing, it sounds ridiculous when we are just two of us, and tell me how much you know about weapons already.”

“Yes… Uh, captain?”

“Just Thomassen goes fine”, the captain replied. Iceland had seen several other people at another side of the shooting range and few more running on the track bit farther, but nobody was close enough to actually hear what they were speaking about. 

“Do you mean weapons generally or just firearms?”

“Generally. Any kind of weapon you can use to defend yourself or others.” Iceland nodded and used a brief moment to think how much he actually knew already. Despite of him never needing to fight, he had got basic training from Norway and Denmark, just in case. However, Iceland had never held much interest in fighting or physical training at all so he hadn’t really been keeping up his skills, if the sparring now and then didn’t count. It probably didn’t, because it happened only once or twice per decade. 

“Uh, I can fight with a knife”, he said, “and sword. Some archery too. Not much with firearms. I think I have hold one once or twice and that’s all.”

“I thought you brother might have taught you something like that”, the captain nodded, and Iceland frowned.

“You know my brother…”

“Is general Holgersen”, the captain said with a nod, “yes, as a team leader I should know things like that. But don’t worry, I will not tell anybody. I am very good with keeping secrets.”

“Oh, thanks.”

“Also, general Holgersen made it clear he would be greatly displeased if I let things like that slip out from my mouth at the wrong moment”, the captain continued with weirdly amused tone, and Iceland sighed.

“Of course, he did.” Iceland wondered if the captain knew about the personifications too, but it seemed like he did not. So far that Iceland knew, rank as a captain wasn’t high enough to know that secret and usually people who knew used their real names and mentioned about knowing just to make things easier. Captain Thomassen was still using human names for them and didn’t say anything hinting about he knew more secrets. Iceland pondered about hinting something toward that, but he ended up deciding it wasn’t important.

“So here is a gun”, the captain said and offered a small handgun to the Icelander, “I hope you will never need to use it.” Iceland took it and grimaced. He had never really liked weapons. He didn’t share the Dane’s fascination toward axes and swords, Norway and Sweden’s practical interest on quality weapons or Finland’s habit to keep up his shooting skills. He already knew he would not like the new skills he was about to learn. 

“I hope so too”, he muttered. The gun felt weirdly light in his hand. 

“Good. You got the main idea”, the captain said, “let me show now how it works.”

The lessons didn’t take long, just a bit over one hour, but they had started late so when Iceland walked back to the barracks it was already dark outside and he used the lights over doors to locate his way. The captain had stayed behind to talk with some people he knew, and Iceland was grateful of the moment of peace and silence before he got back to his team. The night had got cold and the slight breeze calmed him although he hoped he had taken a jacket with him. He could only hear his own steps and the noise of distant traffic behind the school, which helped him to organize his thoughts. He wasn’t disturbed before he realized that there was an extra sound in his steps, like somebody else was walking behind him but taking care that they took the steps in the same rhythm so Iceland wouldn’t notice them. The nation frowned and stopped, the extra steps halting bit too late, and looked behind. He couldn’t see anybody, but when he continued the steps were back. Iceland felt his heart pouncing faster, but he kept himself calm and think about rational reasons. He was in middle of military school there was no way he was going to be attacked, and if it was one of Norway’s friends he should see them. The only sensible reason was that somebody was playing tricks on him, but when the stranger picked up speed with him, Iceland couldn’t really stop the fear sneaking in. He reminded himself of what Norway had told him to do in situations like this, and then he stopped.

“Who is there?” he asked with so demanding and strong voice he could do. Nobody answered, but he heard the steps moving in shadow, circling to his left side, “show yourself!” Iceland had stop under the street light, which he soon realized was a bad idea. The contrast of light and shadow made it impossible for him to see the person in shadows but made him stand on spotlight. He could hear the movements of his follower and at that point it was clear the person wasn’t there by coincidence. Iceland reminded himself that whatever would happen, the worst thing would be that he would get hurt. 

“Hey, Ísland”, familiar voice said, and the agent stepped into light, “I told you I would find you.”

“Oh, it was you”, Iceland said, relaxing slightly although the suspicion about the agents motives kept him aware, “what are you doing here?” Kristfríður looked around like she was expecting somebody uninvited to show up just at that moment, and she shook her head.

“Could you follow me to more secured place?” she asked, “then we can talk freely.” Iceland almost declined the idea, but he had always been more curious than he wanted to admit, and he liked to know why the agents were going against direct order and his wishes to be not followed, so he nodded and followed the woman. It turned out that her idea of secured place was behind of the empty gym hall where the shadows kept them hidden from curious gazes. 

“Can you now tell me what you are doing here?” Iceland asked, “is there more agents around?”

“I already told you, I am here to take care you are safe”, Kristfríður replied, “it is just me this time.”

“I told you I don’t want to be followed”, Iceland said sternly, “I don’t like it, I can’t get hurt and nothing in this land would ever try to hurt me anyway. Nore doesn’t allow it. Following me for protecting is useless.” The woman seemed to flinch slightly when Iceland mentioned his brother, but he wasn’t sure if he had saw correctly or it was just light and shadows playing on her face when she moved.

“Accidents happens”, the woman noted calmly, “we just want you back to your own land where you will be safe for sure and we can…”

“You can what?” Iceland asked when Kristfríður cut her sentence in middle.

“We can watch over you”, she continued with a small smile on her lips, “you belong to your own land with us, Ísland.” It wasn’t first time Iceland heard that and he also thought he belonged to his own land, but the tone the woman used made his hair stand up.

“I am completely fine here”, he said, “and I have a deal with  _ my brother _ .” He didn’t meant to put so much weight on the fact Norway was his brother, but somehow the agent’s hinting that Norway’s land could be dangerous for him, made Iceland annoyed. This place had never been anything else to him than a safe place and how the woman even dared to think Norway would let anything bad to happen.

“We can help you”, the woman said quickly, “then you can return home faster.”

“That is cheating”, Iceland said, “I do not cheat.”

“It is just for your own good”, Kristfríður said in almost pleading tone, and Iceland noticed that somehow it annoyed him even more. He did have quick temper, although he kept it on check most of times, and the woman was really starting to pug him.

“I do not need help”, he said with notably sharper tone and crossed his arms. There was no doubt the woman noticed the nation’s mood, but instead of giving up she stepped forward and grabbed his wrist. The invading of his personal space and sharp nails digging into his skin made the Icelander pull his hand back but the woman didn’t want to let go.

“Ísland”, she pleaded with strangely panicked tone, “just come with me.”

“No”, Iceland said and managed to free himself, “you are dismissed. I am fine by my own.” It looked like she wanted to argue, but the look on Iceland’s face was finally making her think and hesitantly she backed off.

“I will stay near in case you change your mind”, she said, sounding like “in case” meant more “when” than “if”. 

“You really don’t need to.”

“You are my nation”, she said, “I have duties.”

“So have I”, Iceland said, deciding he had heard enough and it was best for all of them that he left before he did something he would regret later, “goodbye.” He didn’t turn to look behind when he walked away and he was glad that Kristfríður didn’t try to follow or yell after him. The Icelander made his way back to his team’s room without any more incidents.

**** 

“How was it?” Sigrid asked immediately he saw Iceland stepping in.

“How was what?”

“The lesson with the captain!” the woman said so loudly Anna hushed at her, but did it in way she already knew it wasn’t going to work and only did so by habit. Few other team mates were paying attention too, not even pretending they were focused on their evening hobbies. Jens, Lars-Emil and Jørgen were middle of card game, Ola was sitting in corner reading a book and everybody was either cleaning their equipment or doing whatever they liked. Anna was embroidering, Sigrid sitting next to her with a open but forgotten book on her lap. Iceland had never guessed a woman like Anna would pick up such a hobby, but he had been surprised before too.

“Oh, it was fine”, Iceland said with a shrug, assuming that nobody had seen him talking with the agent.

“Just fine?” Jørgen asked, “where are the details?”

“Yeah, tell us everything!” His team mates were all way too curious and Iceland gave them a long look before shrugging again.

“It was just a normal lesson. He is a good teacher”, he said, “stop that. It was a  _ lesson _ , not a secret date or whatever you are imagining.”

“Come on”, Sigrid sighed, rolling her eyes to Icelander’s reply, “share his wisdom with us.”

“Fine”, Iceland gave up after the looks didn’t go away. He took of his jacket and took a seat, others gathering around him to listen like he was going to tell the best fairy-tail ever. Iceland didn’t really have much to tell, but for his surprise the team mates knew what questions to ask and somehow they managed to waste the rest of the evening rest with talking about just one lessons and Iceland wasn’t freed before they got the sleep call and had to switch off the lights. 


	12. Accident secret

“Are you sure you want to waste your free evenings with an old man?” Ola asked and the Icelander sitting opposite of him snorted.

“Are you sure you want to ask that every single time?” he asked and got an appreciating smirk back form the man. 

“Quite so”, Ola replied and moved a pawn on the board between them, “check.”

“Damn”, Iceland said under his breath and frowned when he observer the game front of him, “how you keep doing this?”

“I have got few years more to train the art of chess”, the old man replied with a hearty laugh.

“Can’t be that”, Iceland muttered, because he knew exactly who in the room had most years behind them and although he wasn’t big fan of chess, he was still a decent player. Denmark had taught him and it had been one of the most common past of time for them during the years Norway had been away. There haven’t had been too much else to do when Denmark’s poor economy and mourning took all his energy and drove him bedridden for years.

“What else it could be?”

“Cheating.”

“How dare you?” Ola said, sounding more amused than angry, “if you don’t like losing, feel free to join others when they leave the school for some evening fun.”

“I already told you”, Iceland said and finally moved a piece to stop the attack, “I have no reason to leave the school.”

“It could be fun”, Ola mentioned.

“So why you never leave?”

“This is the only moment it is actually quiet here and I can focus on my studies and reading. I am an old man, I can’t keep up with you younger people and your nonsense”, Ola said, and Iceland glanced up. They were granted one free evening every weekend with a permission to leave the school and additionally Sundays were free to spend on school’s area how they wanted. So far Iceland hadn’t leave, mostly because he didn’t see a reason to do so. Instead he used the time to keep contact with his assistants, check on his country’s business and to play chess or cards with Ola, who also always stayed in school all the time. 

“I see”, Iceland muttered, “you just want to get rid off me. You know, you could have just asked me to go to library or something if you wanted to be alone so much.”

“Some fresh air is just good for you.”

“We spend half of the days outside”, Iceland reminded him. It wasn’t a lie because their program indeed included fair amount of physical exercise and field training. As a personification, Iceland couldn’t do much for his physical appearance because it was partly due of his country’s situation, but he had still got some new muscles and he had got better with the exercises. He bet Denmark would have been proud of him. 

“It is different when you go out to have fun”, Ola said, “it helps with the team spirit. People are relaxed and more social. You could learn much more about your team mates if you just spent some time with them outside of the school.” Iceland’s hand halted for a moment over the chess board, but the gesture was easy to mask just for hesitation to make a move. In truth, he knew exactly which piece he was going to move but Ola had managed to say the exact thing that made Iceland to re-evaluate his plans.

“Really?”

“Of course”, Ola said and gave the Icelander bit strange look, “oh, I heard your tech guys are bit unsocial folk, but I never guessed it is so serious that you don’t even know the basic social skills.”

“We do things with people”, Iceland muttered, once again thanking his luck for such great excuse Sigrid had handed out for him. He really wasn’t ready to announce that his poor human skills were due to the fact he wasn’t a human at all. 

“Do you only speak that number thing?” Ola casually asked and glanced over the board before making his move. Iceland had successfully avoided the attack and the man had to change his tactic once again. 

“Number thing?”

“You know, zeros and ones in random order.”

“You mean binary code?” Iceland asked, and Ola shrugged, “no, we use Norwegian like all the normal and real people.”

“Disappointing.”

“Well, sorry for not living up to your expectations”, Iceland muttered, “check.” The old man frowned and made a double check to see if Iceland’s latest move had really successfully carried out his attack. 

“You are really good with this game”, he noted.

“I had a good teacher and great motivation”, Iceland said, grimacing when he remembered the things Denmark had made him do if he lost the game. The only reason Iceland had kept playing was that if he won, Denmark would got the punishment. That had been big enough reason to lose few times himself first. 

“I can see that”, Ola replied, “but seriously, you should be out and not sit in playing chess with an old man like me.”

“I will think about that”, Iceland said and he meant that. Ola’s mention about people being more social and relaxed in free time events sounded promising. Iceland already knew Norway’s spy was good, but an idea of gathering more information from unaware and relaxed people was a good one. 

“You should ask Sigrid where she is planning to go next weekend”, Ola noted, “she is always planning social things.”

“I am not sure about that”, Iceland said, “she probably wants to spend time with her fiancée.” Ola glanced up and gave the Icelander a strange look.

“But her fiancée…”, he started, but quickly stopped in mid-sentence.

“What?”

“Nothing special”, Ola said, “just something I am not supposed to be talking about.”

“I see”, Iceland said, frowning slightly. He wasn’t going to blame anybody about having and keeping secrets. After all, he had so many of those too, but the more he heard about his team mates the more he wasn’t sure. Was it more suspicious that Ola was holding secrets or that Sigrid had those? The human behaviour really confused him sometimes. He briefly wondered if humans would be equally confused about personifications’ way to socialize, if they ever got a chance to witness it. 

“How are the shooting lessons going on?” Ola asked, casually changing the topic as their game continued.

“Just fine”, Iceland said. He had so far had five of those. Captain Thomassen seemed to have quite busy schedule so they didn’t really have set times for lessons. Instead, the captain would ask Iceland to come to the shooting range now and then whenever he had some time to spare. Iceland didn’t really understand why he had volunteered when he already had so much on his plate. It could have something to do with his brother and that the captain knew he was one of the highest generals, Iceland thought. After all, making connections seemed to be important for humans and he assumed being somehow connected to a general was very valuable thing for the captain even if it meant to sacrifice some free time to teach the general’s little brother to shoot. At least in some aspect. For Iceland, being connected to Norway hadn’t really been anything else than a headache, or so he muttered to himself. 

The agent was still lurking around, but she hadn’t made any more moves to take contact to Iceland and was acting exactly as a perfect kitchen staff was supposed, so Iceland assumed she was going to leave soon just as she had been ordered. Iceland hadn’t seen any other agents either, and after few days of suspiciously looking over his shoulder, he had decided she wasn’t going to be a problem. Iceland still hoped she would just leave soon, but the total non-connection and almost pure ignoring worked too. Only if Iceland would get rid of the haunting feeling of something going on behind his back. 

But because he couldn’t do anything more than give the woman order to stay away, and try to find the spy, Iceland focused to forget about his suspicious feelings and to just find the spy. He didn’t have many weeks left, but he was still determinate to show his brother what he could do. If nothing else, he should at least have a good guess to give. 

“You still here with me?” Ola’s question brought the nation back to the moment. Iceland frowned and nodded.

“Yeah, sorry, I got stuck on some thoughts”, he said and quickly glanced over the chess table, “how the hell you are threatening my king again?”

“By actually focusing on the game”, Ola said and laughed, “you know, for me it looks like you really need some time off.”

“I told you already I will think about it”, Iceland replied and grimaced when he felt strange pain in his stomach. It was strange, he thought. Usually whatever pain he had, it disappeared quickly but now he had felt weird already all day. He quietly hoped that his body wasn’t developing any weird intolerances on food all of sudden. It was a pain to first figure out what was causing it and then fix the whole thing, and he really wasn’t filling to deal with that right then. 

“Good, good”, Ola said and looked up, “hey, are you feeling alright?”

“Yeah why?”

“You went very pale all of sudden”, the old man said with a calm, trained voice covering his worried one, “maybe we should call this tie and you go to rest? Maybe you finally caught that flu we all others had last month. It was hellish, I tell you.”

“I don’t think…”, Iceland said but the sharp pain almost made him puke, “uh, maybe you are right. But I am doing this only because I should lay down, not because I was losing. We gonna have a re-match soon.”

“Sure, sure”, Ola said, “go to check if the nurse can give you something. I will clean up this.” Iceland nodded and got up, resisting the will to hold his hand over his stomach. The pain wasn’t constant, more like pulsing, and it varied from strong to only mildly painful. Iceland wasn’t sure what was causing it, but he was a personification with stable economy and his people were not going to disappear anytime soon, so there wasn’t really a reason for him to be worried. Still, he quickly checked news from the TV somebody had left open in the lobby. If there was something wrong with his country, for sure it would be mentioned. Just as he assumed, there was nothing on Iceland.

“Maybe I ate something wrong”, he muttered, making his way to the toilet. He wasn’t going to see nurse or get medicine because that wasn’t going to help him at all. Instead he planned to go to the toilet and stay there for a while until the pain stopped. He grimaced when he got in, feeling the pulsing pain increasing again. He glanced at mirror, noting that Ola had been right about him looking pale, and then everything turned black.

“....Andersen? Andersen?” Iceland woke up for a hand shaking his shoulder slightly and voice calling his fake name. He opened his eyes, groaning when the artificial light blinded him for a moment.

“How are you feeling?” a woman asked and Iceland glanced at side to see Anna looking down to him. The first voice calling his name had belonged to captain Thomassen who had also been the one shaking his shoulder, and behind them he could also see Ola, Kjerstina, Freyr and one man he wasn’t familiar with.

“Just fine”, he said and frowned when he noticed where he was, “why am I on toilet floor.”

“That is a good question we hoped you could answer”, the captain said, “Valdórsson here found you and alerted us when he couldn’t get you up.”

“Okay”, Iceland muttered and carefully got up, few hands helping him, “I don’t really know.”

“You talked about stomach pain earlier”, Ola said with worried tone, “and you looked sick.”

“Yeah”, Iceland muttered, “it is okay now.” He didn’t feel any pain and if the confusion of waking up in toilet, surrounded by bunch of people, was not counted he felt quite normal.

“I heard there was few cases of food poisoning earlier today”, captain Thomassen noted, “something about spoiled salad being served. The officers are looking at it right now.”

“It was probably that”, Iceland said., Eager to offer some answer for the humans so they would stop gathering around him and look so worried.

“You should go to get checked”, Anna noted and frowned, “I think the nurse is not here anymore this late.”

“I am not going to hospital”, Iceland said quickly. His kind going to hospital was always a spectacle he rather avoided.

“Maybe…”

“No”, Iceland said and offered half smile for proof, “I am fine, really.”  His team mates protested, but he kept his head.

“Isn’t Thorsen a medic?” the captain asked and continued after getting few nods back, “let him to check on you, Andersen, and take tomorrow free. This is an order and if you feel anything weird at all, you get your ass to hospital. Are we clear?” 

“Yes, captain”, Iceland said and saluted. It was a good compromise at least, and once Jørgen had checked him and declared he was physically well, everybody let him in piece. It was just when he laid in his bed, listening the sounds of sleeping humans around him, that he really wondered what had happened. He was an immortal personification. There was no way he should be getting sick and fainting in toilet. 

On Tuesday, after Iceland had dutifully rested all Monday instead of joining others in their lessons, he was up and at the shooting range with the captain and few other team mates. Usually it would have been just him and the captain, but some others had wanted to train too and happened to show up at the same time. Iceland didn’t really mind. He was even eager to show what he had learnt, because there has so far not been end for all the jokes others had been making of his tech guy status. Iceland had even been secretly smug when Sigrid had complemented first few rows he had done and Jørgen had loudly announced that they needed to find a new guy to pick on.

“Try the Glock next”, Jens said, nodding toward the hand gun on the stance. Iceland nodded and picked it up. Preparing just like he had been taught. Sigrid was firing with a riffle near by, and the almost rhythmic shoots weirdly helped him to focus. He aimed carefully, making sure he would get a good score, and pulled the trigger. Instead of the bullet flying out, the gun kicked back and exploded. Iceland yelled and jumped back, dropping the broken gun and flinching for the pain. Luckily his hand wasn’t too hurt or broken, but he knew he would not be able to use it correctly for a while.

“Guns down!” captain Thomassen yelled, proceeding to make sure nobody else would get hurt by whatever had gone wrong with the gun, and once again Iceland found himself surrounded by worried humans.

Wednesday wasn’t any better. There was something strange going on in the cafeteria and he got horrible headache every time he even tried to go close it. Nobody else seemed to be affected of it so he took care to not mention anything and offer his best excuses to eat somewhere else that day. He was happy that Kristfríður seemed to have finally taken the hint and left the school. He hadn’t seen the woman around and he really didn’t need the agent telling him again how he needed a watch dogs following him. He could survive fine by just his own.

Thursday was much better, but all the internet connections at school were down so he couldn’t check in with his assistant for the news. That wasn’t too big problem however, he trusted on them and was sure they would find another way to contact him if they needed him right then. On Friday nothing was wrong and that’s why he went to look for Sigrid.

“Hey”, he said when he spotted the woman in lobby after their last lesson of the week, “are you in hurry?”

“No, not really”, Sigurd smiled and gave the nation curious look, “what it is? If you are wondering what Anna is coming up for the mission she has to plan, I don’t know. She refuses to tell me about it.”

“Nothing about that”, Iceland said, “I actually wanted to ask if you guys are planning anything tomorrow’s free time?”

“Really? I thought you were never gonna get out with us.”

“Been a harsh week”, he shrugged, “I thought it would be a good idea, and Ola is getting annoying with chess.” Sigrid laughed softly, though she also looked bit worried when Iceland mentioned the harsh week.

“We actually thought about going for a movie tomorrow evening”, she said, “there are few good ones showing so we thought about voting for the best and then go to see it. Anna, Kjerstina, Jørgen, Freyr and Jens are going. Lars-Emil wasn’t sure yet. He might go to bar with some other friends instead.”

“That sounds good”, Iceland said and hoped he didn’t sound too awkward, “so, place for one more?”

“Of course”, Sigrid said with a smile, “be ready at five tomorrow. We gonna make the vote at the theater.” 

“Sure”, Iceland said. His Saturday was first spent with checking with his assistants that everything was rolling on fine, and listening Ola and Jørgen making fun about the tech guy finally showing some social side.  He did manage slip in few snarky comments too, managing to make the team laugh. It seemed like their connections haven’t changed even if the Icelander had ended up bit hurt, and Iceland was happy about it. There wasn’t many weeks left and he had to keep up.

They had to catch a bus from the school to the city, but they seemed to be used for it so Iceland settled just to follow their lead and chat aimlessly with Jørgen who happened to sit next to him. He noted that Ola had been right, the people looked way more relaxed right after the school’s gates and the difference on their attitude and the civil clothes they were wearing really made it almost difficult to recognize them as the same people who had trained with him few months now. He also had felt bit strange himself when he had put his normal clothes on and realized it had been so long time since he had worn them last time. With some satisfaction he had noticed how his shirt felt bit tighter around shoulders, and once again he thought how proud Denmark would be about this development. 

The buss left them quite close to the theater so they decided to walk the few blocks distant left instead of catching another bus. The team clearly had already picked their favorites of the available movies because the talk about it was almost reaching the fighting level and Jørgen and Kjerstina both tried to lure Iceland on their side because it seemed like there was going to be tie with some options. Iceland hadn’t really thought about what he wanted to see as he was more focused on seeing if he could figure out new hints about the Norway’s spy. He just nodded and shrugged more and less random points, wondering if they all really were what they said they were, if any actually knew who he was, if Jørgen or Kjerstina really cared about the movie at all or were just trying to cheat him to think something else, if Jens was giving him too many looks or if Sigrid’s fiancee was going to join them, or if Lars-Emil was really out with other friends instead doing some possible spy stuff. So many questions that Iceland never noticed the car before it hit him. 

He did notice the screaming and the pain and how the asphalt felt wet under him. He did hear the car racing off but didn’t connect what it had to do with the sudden pain he was feeling. He didn’t understand even when the people came over, looking shocked and scared.

“Eiríkur, oh God, Eiríkur?” he heard Kjerstina calling and felt a pair of fingers pressing on his neck before somebody else said there was a pulse. He couldn’t really figure out who was speaking after that or what was happening, because everything was strangely blurry. 

“Is he awake?”

“He seems to be, but doesn’t respond.”

“Somebody call ambulance!”

“Did you saw that car’s register number?”

“Hold here tightly. It is bleeding too fast.”

“It is okay, the ambulance is here soon.”

“Jørgen, how it looks?”

“He gonna be okay. Focus now and calm down.”

“Anna, help me here!”

“Jens and Kjerstina, run to ask if anybody has first aid bag there!”

“Captain, we are…”

“The pulse is getting weaker!”

“I was walking by, what happened here?”

“A car…”

“...Eiríkur…”

“‘Island.”

****** 

Norway breathed calmly, laying on the couch and resting his head on the Dane’s lap. They were both supposed to work with the material they had gathered, but Norway had fell asleep and Denmark had no heart to awake him even if he knew the Norwegian would be pissed out about that. He had been pushing on his limits for weeks, fighting to find out the truth behind the agents, mysteries and everything that was going on so his brother would be safe. He had barely got any sleep or rest so now that he had finally fell asleep, a pile of documents on his lap and a pen in hand for writing notes, Denmark let him be. 

He continued alone. Checking the facts they had received about the agents, trying to figure out where they were and what they were blaming. They had statistics, background info of anybody possibly involved somehow, details on everything that had happened in Iceland during past decade, and so much more. The problem was to find something that would give a motive, and explanation for what was happening and a way for them to stop it. 

Norway frowned in his sleep and muttered something Denmark couldn’t hear but sounded distressed, and it wasn’t the first time he had seemed to be uncomfortable in his dream so Denmark only hoped there weren’t nightmares. He hushed quietly and petted the Norwegian’s hair, giving just enough comfort for the man to feel it but not wake up. The few past months had but a stress on their relationship. There wasn’t time for a touch or talking nor they had energy to give for anything else than to solve out the problem with agents and Iceland. Still, when the Dane looked at the sleeping Norwegian he only felt love, and he also put Iceland’s well-being front of everything.

A phone started to ring and the Dane wondered who was calling them so late. It was well past the dinner time and usually they got calls only during work hours. Norway was stirring awake so he didn’t waste time with checking the caller info before taking in the call.

“Hey”, he said, realizing then that it was Norway’s phone he was talking to.

“Norge?”

“He is here”, he replied, “I am Danmark.”

“We have problem.”

“What?”

“Island is in hospital”, the voice explained quickly, almost in scared way, “he is stable and not in danger right now, but I think this was not an accident. There has been too much things happening this week for it all to be an accident.” Denmark felt a cold anger raising and he pressed his hand in fist, barely holding himself calm so he would not lash out at the messenger who hadn’t done anything bad.

“Tell me everything”, he ordered, “and don’t leave Island alone. There better be the most trusted officers with him right now.”


	13. Hospital secret

“Colonel”, Norway said with cold tone when he saw the woman standing on guard next to completely normal looking hospital room. She was wearing her civil clothes and acting casually in order to not draw attention, but it was obvious she was on guard.

“Norge”, she saluted, “I assure you, your brother has received the best medical attention from the staff assigned for cases like this, and he is currently awake and responding. Captain Thomassen is positioned in the room, with sergeant Holms and sergeant Rønning downstairs.”

“Yes, I saw them”, Norway said, “colonel, what you have to say for your defense? I believed your school was secured.”

“It is”, the colonel replied, “the accident happened outside the school’s ground.”

“I heard it wasn’t the first accident”, Norway said sharply and Denmark took it as a hint to excuse himself. He nodded once, mostly to do something to pretend he wasn’t just escaping an unpleasant conversation, and slipped into the room the colonel had been guarding. He was greeted with a gun pointed at his face.

“Woah”, he said and held up his hands, “I am family, it is okay.”

“I am sorry, general”, the captain said and slipped his gun back to its’ holster. 

“No need. It is great to see you take the duty seriously”, the Dane replied and focused on the young nation laying on the hospital bed. The said nation looked like he wasn’t hurt at all and mostly wanted to go home. They both knew the needles, bandages and everything was just for show and Iceland didn’t really need that as his body was handling things great just by its own.

“Captain, with due respect, can I talk with the general in private?” the Icelander asked.

“Of course”, the captain replied and saluted before leaving the room. It was good that the walls were sound-proof because when the door opened they caught part of the colonel and Norway’s discussion and it was just great they didn’t need to hear it all.  Once they were alone, Denmark quickly reached the Icelander and hugged him tightly.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yeah”, Iceland replied quietly, “not pain at all. It passed in few hours.”

“I didn’t mean your body.” Iceland was quiet for a moment, knowing what the Dane was after but also hesitating to ask even if he really wanted. He sighed deeply and enjoyed the safe, familiar presence wrapping him in.

“Did I died?” he finally asked.

“No”, the Dane replied, still holding the Icelander tightly, “we would have felt it. By what I heard, it sound like the pain was so much your brain closed everything off, but you were here all the time.”

“Okay”, Iceland said, “great.”

“I am sorry.”

“It is okay.”

“I am still sorry”, Denmark said, “you know, we wanna keep you safe.”

“It was an accident”, Iceland replied, “thinking about how long life I have had and how few accidents I have had, it was high time I got in one.” Denmark hesitated, pondered if he should let the Icelander know about their doubts about everything being an accident at all, but he decided against. 

“I still hoped you could go without this experience bit longer”, he said, “you know, you survived all the dark age without scratch and then get driven over by a car in one of the most peaceful places in the world, what kind of luck is that?”

“Luck of having two over-protective brothers following me around like mosquitoes”, Iceland joked, making the Dane laugh and ruffle his hair.

“Good to hear you are still okay”, he said, “you know, your brother is giving bad day for some people.”

“Of course”, Iceland muttered and rolled his eyes, “he should calm down. I am not a child anymore and bad things happens.”

“He just worries. He is like that”, the Dane said and sat down on the bed, “so, how it is going with the spy thing? Found out anything yet?”

“No, not really”, Iceland said and frowned, “though… I think I heard somebody calling my real name after the accident, but I can’t figure out who it was. Everything got so confusing. I just know I heard my name and I guess it wasn’t any of you because you weren’t there, right?”

“Yeah, we were at home. They called us in”, Denmark nodded.

“So it had to be the spy”, Iceland muttered, “if I could just…”

“You are already doing very well, you know”, the Dane noted, “Nor is proud, you know.”

“I haven’t give him a single reason to be that.”

“You have forgot the original reason for this bet?” Denmark asked, “when he claimed you can’t deal with humans? Well, by the reports I have seen, you are dealing with humans really well. Looked bit awkward first, but you getting there.”

“There had been reports?” Iceland asked, but whatever Denmark was going to reply, it never happened because Norway stepped in to the room. He looked calm, despite the tone he had used earlier, and he hurried to check on the Icelander.

“How are you feeling?” he asked and frowned at all the equipment they had put on just to cheat everybody who didn’t know about personifications.

“I am fine, Nore.”

“I should have never let anything to happen to you”, the Norwegian continued, sounding like he wasn’t really listening at all, “this is supposed to be the safe place. I don’t know how it was possible that this happened but I will take care it is not going to happen again. You can come home once the colonel has make sure there will be no more accidents.”

“What you mean…”

“I don’t care about the bet if it is putting your well-being in risk and…”

“Nore!” Iceland said, but Norway kept going. Denmark observed them, nodding in appreciating way when he saw the Icelander trying to put up to Norway. He only needed a bit of help, the Dane thought and placed his hand on Norway’s arm.

“Love”, he said softly, somehow getting the Norwegian’s attention right away even when Iceland’s almost yelling hadn’t worked at all, “I think you should listen what Is needs to say.” Norway paused, glancing at the Icelander who had already start to get angry, and nodded.

“Of course”, he said, “what you wanted to say?”

“I am not calling the bet off and so are not you”, Iceland said quickly, using such tone the Dane felt rather proud, “it is only few weeks, accidents happens, and I do not allow this to end like this. I want to play to the end. No matter if it looks like you are going to win.”

“Are you sure?” Norway asked.

“Yes.”

“What if something happens again?”

“Then we will deal with it”, Iceland said, “I am an immortal personification, there is very slim chance anything will happen to me unless my country is in danger.”

“True.”

“My country is doing fine, right?” he asked, “the thing, whatever you two are dealing with, it still has nothing to do with my people?”

“Yes”, Norway said, “it is merely a small nuisance.” 

“You are lying.”

“Would you like to hear the truth then?” Iceland hesitated, but finally shook his head.

“Tell me after I have finished my training”, he said, “until then, you are in charge of my nation just as you promised. Then I will take the reins again and you tell me everything.”

“As you want.”

“And Nore”, Iceland said, “I am not a child anymore. I haven’t been a child for a long time.” Norway didn’t reply, but Denmark smiled and nodded.

“He knows it”, he said, “just having hard time to believe you don’t need his care like before.”

“Why don’t you offer to take my place then”, Iceland asked dryly, “I guess you would love all the attention, Dane.”

“What a fabulous idea!”

“Oh, shut up”, Norway said with a sigh, “fine. We continue the bet as you wish.”

“Good.”

“You better to not get into any problems.”

“You know”, Iceland said, “from a mouth of ex-viking who apparently wrecked half of Europe and didn’t care at all, that doesn’t sound really serious.” 

“Who made you so witty with your words?” Norway asked back.

“Take a wild guess, Nore.”

“Wouwwouw”, Denmark said and raised his hands, “slow down, guys, there is an innocent Dane in the room.”

“That can’t be you.”

“And I think we are gonna get some company soon so let’s pretend to be mortals for a while, okay?” the Dane continued quickly and barely had he finished when there was a knock on the door and captain Thomassen stepped in, Sigrid following after him. The woman was carrying flowers and a handmade card with so much glitter it shined.

“Eiríkur!” Sigrid said and rushed to see the Icelander, “goodness, are you feeling okay? You had us worried for a moment.”

“I am fine”, Iceland said, “they pumped me full of drugs so I can’t feel anything right now.”

“Oh, good”, Sigrid said and seemed then to realize who else was in the room. She jumped into a position, almost dropping the flowers, “generals!”

“Ease”, Norway said, “we are here as private persons.”

“Lieutenant Friedheim here was selected to deliver the team’s well wishes to our patient”, captain Thomassen noted. Iceland nodded and gave a sharp look at the Dane who was still holding on Norway bit too closely. The last thing he needed was Sigrid starting to speak weirdly about his brother’s relationship once again. Luckily Denmark took the hint and moved away while giving the Icelander a deeply disappointed look.

“How nice of them”, Norway said, no sign about his earlier emotions on his voice, “I understood many of them were present when Eiríkur was hit.”

“Yes, sir”, Sigrid nodded, “most of us were there and gave the first aid until the ambulance arrived.”

“Nobody else got hurt?” Iceland asked, “the nurses refused to tell me much.”

“No, everybody is okay”, Sigrid replied with smile, “Kjerstina was pushed by the car and got some bruises, but she got back to school after a quick hospital visit. We were shaken up, of course, but there was some talk with the school’s staff and you know, we are still officers so we got over it.”

“Good to heard”, Iceland said, once again slightly taken aback by the woman’s way to just babble everything out. 

“We made a card for you”, Sigrid said and pushed the glitter monster on Iceland’s lap, “we couldn’t find a ready made card but guess what, for some reason the school has great supplies of glitter.”

“I recon hearing it  was because of the infamous valentine’s day surprise few years back and the accountant ordering too much materials by mistake”, captain Thomassen said with a small smirk on his lips, “the dark secrets of the military school.”

“That would explain all the pink paper hearts we found too”, Sigrid said and started to fix the flowers she had brought to the small vase on side table, “others wanted to come too, but the colonel and captain here claimed that it is best to keep your secret and allow only me to come because I already know it.”

“What?” Iceland asked.

“I believe she is referring to our family relationship”, Norway noted and reached to ruffle the Icelander’s hair, “me and Mathias have to go now, but you try to keep yourself out of problems, you hear that?”

“Is that an order from my general?” Iceland asked dryly.

“More like a wish from your brother”, Norway replied softly. He and Denmark got up and left with short goodbyes. Captain Thomassen too excused himself and so Iceland was left alone with Sigrid and her endless comments on how great the generals and captain were. 

“Nor”, Denmark said when they got into quiet part of the hospital, “I know that look, you are planning something.”

“Of course I am”, the Norwegian replied.

“Nor”, the Dane said and reached for the man’s arm, “listen, I think you should respect Island’s wishes and let him finish the training in peace.” Norway stopped and gave the Dane a stern look.

“I am respecting his decisions”, he said, “but there are more going on than he knows about. If he did know this all, he would accept my protection without problem.”

“I know you are worried and I too want to see those agents jailed or something”, Denmark said, “but Island was right when he said he can handle things and he is an immortal like us. We haven’t got any evidence that they want to disturb the country itself, they are only targeting him as person.”

“The moment they hurt him they went too far.”

“We don’t know if it was them”, the Dane said, “it could have been just an accident. We have had those too.”

“But…”

“You died in traffic accident five years ago. It was an accident, nothing else”, Denmark said, his hold on the Norwegian tightening for a moment when he remembered the day he really didn’t want to remember, “you have to admit, Island is like us. It would be a miracle if he didn’t get hurt once in his long life.” Norway glared at the Dane, but he had to admit the man was right. With a small sigh his expression relaxed and he glanced away.

“True”, he muttered, “but so long when we are not sure what is going on…”

“We will work on figuring it out”, Denmark continued, “and we will make sure nothing hurts Island, but we are also giving him space and let him deal with his things. You know, I think it would be the best if we told him everything.”

“We are too far into this to get back to that”, Norway said, “he doesn’t even want to know. Why he said no if he doesn’t want to be protected?”

“You know, it is only few weeks until his program is over and then you tell him”, Denmark noted, “and I think he is testing you. Waiting to see how far you go with not trusting on him, maybe?”

“Yeah”, Norway said, sounding hesitating but clearly thinking the Dane’s words, “you could be right.”

“I love you, you know?” Norway nodded and leaned closer, taking comfort from the Dane’s arms and Denmark had nothing against that.

“How did you become the voice of sense?” the Norwegian asked, “a Dane telling me the right way to do and me agreeing… Sounds even worse. Sverige would never let me live this down.” Denmark laughed softly and caressed the man’s back.

“Somebody has to do that when you go over the edge”, he said, “you are worried and tired, but you know, what could hurt us anyway? Whatever those agents are planning about, we will stop it.”

“Of course”, Norway said.

“And Island is not an idiot. He will take care of himself.”

“I know”, Norway muttered, “I am still going to send in somebody. I need to be sure the agents gone rogue are not in the school.”

“You already have bunch of connections there, how could any more help?”

“I am not sending in a human”, Norway explained, “there is something going on there and I think it is time to bring family in, somebody the agents are not familiar with and I can trust without any doubt.”

“Sve or Fin?”

“Fin.”

“Good pick”, Denmark muttered, “he will love this, but also stays away from Island’s business.”

“I know”, Norway said, “and he is ruthless enough to take care of anybody starting to be a threat.”

“You sounded a bit scary there.”

“Good. I was worried the modern day luxury has make me soft”, Norway muttered with a shrug, “and it wasn’t me who yelled a bloody murder when he got the phone call last night. Which reminds me, what made you change your mind? You were all okay with taking Island in again, even without his willingness, but now you are talking about his own decision and so on.” 

“I just listened him a moment”, the Dane replied when they started to walk again, holding hands this time, “saw you in way how he spoke and realized that it is high time we give him more respect before he snaps and runs off to cause havoc and chaos in small English villages. It was really fun with you back then, but the modern day people… We better keep Island sane here.”

“Very funny, Dane.”

“It is true, thought”, Denmark said, “he is not the helpless little nation anymore. He is Island. He had been telling us that for years already.” Norway nodded and didn’t say anything. They walked for a while in silence, just holding hands and thinking their own things. It wasn’t until they were at car when Norway spoke up again.

“You know”, he said, “you raised him well when I wasn’t around.” Denmark didn’t have anything to say to that so he just smiled and leaned to give a peck on the Norwegian’s cheek. 

 

****** 

“You were physically ready to leave the hospital already the moment you were taken in”, the doctor explained with a professional looking smile on her face, “but because so many civilians were involved, we kept you in for few days to make sure they will not suspect anything.”

“I understand”, Iceland said with a nod. He had been hooked up into machines for a while, but none of those had been actually working. Even the heart rate they had took had been just some pre-programmed test rate and not his own, blood samples had been destroyed without examination and none medicines given to him. 

“What we could see in x-rays and tests”, the doctor continued and pulled out few files, “the crash broke almost every rib bone on your left side along causing a collapsed lung and large internal bleeding. One bone piece almost pierced your heart. Additionally your shoulder was dislocated and these bones here”, she tapped the x-stray of Iceland’s upper body, “all in pieces.”

“Uh, no wonder it hurt”, Iceland grimaced.

“For anybody else this would have for sure meant at least years of recovering, possibly lasting damage, but you were ready to walk around only few hours after the accident”, he doctor noted, “fascinating, really. All we had to do was to check all the bones healed in right way, which they luckily did. I recall being forced to re-broke some Denmark’s bones because of the wrong position they healed in and he was never pleased about it.”

“Good sides of immortality. Would have been bad to live rest of the eternity damaged”, Iceland tried to joke but the doctor seemed to not appreciate that because she only gave the nation a quick look before focusing on her papers again. Iceland knew she was  a good one and specially selected to know the secret. It wasn’t often they needed medical assistance. It was actually so rare they only had one special team for whole Nordic and it was more than enough.

“Well”, the doctor said, tactically ignoring what the nation had said, “again, because of all the civilians you are involved with right now and who know about the accident you were in, you will have to act like you were, in fact, hit by a car.”

“Okay”, Iceland said and grimaced again. He knew the things they had to do to keep up the secret but he had never been a good actor. He was still amazed about how well Denmark had pulled the brain damage act few years back when half of his neighbors had seen him hitting his head against the wall after bike related accident. Norway had said it was because the Dane had lot of experience of being brain damaged and Sweden noted the Dane was actually brain damaged all the time, but it had still be excellent acting. 

“I will show you few videos where you can see how people with these kind of injuries walk and act”, the doctor said, “please, pay attention and try to keep the acting up at least a week. Also, do not drop it suddenly. The healing process for normal people is slow, not instant.”

“Okay”, Iceland muttered again and focused to watch the strangest educational films he had ever seen. It had never popped up in his mind that somebody had filmed how to act sick teaching videos for personifications but apparently somebody had thought about that because they had done it. The doctor focused on her work again, leaving the nation to watch the films. Few times Iceland felt like the doctor was looking at him, but when he turned around the woman was giving all his attention to her work and didn’t even say anything. 

Few days later Iceland was released from the hospital. The extra guarding around him had ended already before, by Norway’s orders Iceland assumed. He was rather glad to see that the Norwegian listened at least something he said although he didn’t expect to see his brother dropping his protecting little brother act right away. 

“I should have let him tell me everything”, he muttered to himself when he walked in from already familiar gates and made his way to the team room. He knew he should have said yes, but the more Norway asked the more Iceland started to get differently curious. It was like he didn’t want the actual answer. He just wanted to see how far Norway would take the game before telling him everything. He was curious about that even if he didn’t really know why he was curious.

“Eiríkur? Oh, everybody! It is Eiríkur! He is back!” The team broke into yelling and greetings, totally surprising the nation who hadn’t been expecting that. He was so shocked that didn’t even try to pull against the hands dragging him inside, making him sit down and tell everything that had happened at hospital. Iceland tried his best to say everything the doctor had told him to tell people asking questions, even if he hadn’t listened too much because he had never expect to ask any questions, but apparently he did well enough because everybody seemed to buy it. 

“We got a new guest lecturer”, Sigrid mentioned when the topic switched to fill in the Icelander on what had happened at school during past few days, “you got really lucky. He is staying only one week so you almost missed him. He is awesome!”

“I think he already got lucky he survived that crash”, Lars-Emil noted.

“Yeah, but it is extra luck he didn’t miss the awesome quest lecturer from Finland.”

“From Finland?” Iceland asked, getting a bad feelings about the said lecturer.

“Yeah, they made some education exchange so he got here to show us stuff”, Jörgen said and frowned, “he got difficult name though. What was it again? Väin something?”

“Veinemöine?”

“I am sure it had ä somewhere.”

“And the nen ending. All Finnish names has that!”

“Väinämöinen?” Iceland asked and got few excited nods back. Coincidences happened, he knew it, but he also knew his brother and was quite sure he also was familiar with this new, awesome guest lecturer. He sighed quietly and once again wondered what was really going on. 


	14. Notebook secret

“General Väinämöinen”, Iceland said and stood up when his team had just ended their lesson and most of them were on way out for lunch, “may I speak with you?” The people who heard the Icelander ask such question from the Finnish officer, raised their brows but did not stop to find out what was going on. Iceland knew it wasn’t normal for student to ask such thing after the lesson from a guest lecturer, but he didn’t care. He wanted to know what kind of excuse the Finn would come up with or if he would bother at all. 

“Of course”, Finland said with a polite smile, “just a moment.” He started to pack his things, doing it so slowly that everybody else in room left and just the two personifications stayed behind. Once they were alone, Finland dropped everything and walked to Iceland, his arms ready for a hug.

“Islanti”, he said and hugged the Icelander tightly, “it has been a while.”

“Yeah”, Iceland muttered and sighed, “what are you doing here?” Although he wasn’t so close to Finland as he was to Denmark and Norway, hugging the Finnish man was okay. Especially because he was taller than Finland, for the Finn’s displeasure. It was nice change to hug somebody who was shorter.

“Working undercover for Nor, what you thought?”

“Exactly that”, Iceland replied, “what did he promised to you?”

“To host that World meeting next year I was supposed to have”, the Finn replied, “and then there was some ‘family helps each other’ shit but I didn’t buy that.”

“Of course”, Iceland replied, “that was actually quite big favor from him, he hates to host those ones.”

“He sounded like he is really invested on this”, the Finn noted, “sure I know it all now, but he said you don’t want to hear about it.”

“Yeah.”

“You really don’t want?” Finland asked, “I don’t mind about letting some info to slip. I honestly think right now that your brother is a moron.”

“No, I want to hear it from Nore”, Iceland said, “I can figure out my stuff and yeah, I know how he is.” Finland stepped back and looked at the Icelander, letting his hands rest on man’s shoulders when he observed the younger nation. There was appreciation on his eyes and Iceland suddenly felt really good. It wasn’t everyday Finland appreciated somebody.

“Exactly what I wanted to hear”, he noted and smiled, “you are strong one, Is.”

“Thanks, I guess.”

“And look what muscles you have got!” the Finn continued and groped the Icelander’s shoulders, “damn, soon you are ready to take me on in fist fight.”

“Looking forward that.”

“You better”, Finland said, “you are the only one in family I haven’t yet thrown on the ground. It is high time we fix that.”

“Uh, whatever you say”, Iceland muttered and rolled his eyes, “so you are a general too? Am I the only one without military title?”

“Yep”, Finland said with a shrug, “it is just a word thought. Doesn’t really mean anything else than somebody thought we need to have more special words for other people to call us with.”

“I always thought you did quite lot during war time?”

“Yeah”, the Finn nodded, “but the title I got after. So I did all that without a fancy word and then did nothing with it. Doesn’t really make sense but so it is.”

“Okay”, Iceland muttered, “so, did you already got what that cunning Norwegian brother of mine wanted?” Finland smirked and shrugged.

“I think I need some more time”, he noted, “and I am really looking forward that surviving lesson I am gonna hold tomorrow. It is gonna be fun!”

“I am suddenly happy these things are holding me back from the practical lessons”, Iceland said and moved the arm that was bandaged, “I have already broken enough bones for a while.”

“What a shame.”

“Sure”, Iceland snorted.

“You would have loved it.”

“I dare to doubt.”

“Well, I can give you a private course later.”

“I rather you do not.”

“You sound a lot like your brother, you know”, Finland said and Iceland raised his brow, “but something has changed in you, right? You aren’t same than before.”

“I have no idea what you are talking about”, Iceland said and Finland smirked.

“That is what Nor said when I talked with him about some stuff a while ago”, he noted, looking rather amused, “well, I have some undercover job to do, so see you later. Have fun!”

“You too”, Iceland replied and hesitated for a moment before continuing, “it was nice to see you again.”

“Same”, Finland said and winked, “your brother too always take his time to tell that. When do you all admit that you need me and my company? I swear Sve is the only one honest for himself here.”

“Yeah, whatever. I don’t even know what you mean”, Iceland said and waved before escaping the room, “see you in next family meeting or something.”

“Yeah, or around here. Just ignore me if you see me lurking around, I am just doing my job”, Finland said with a happy tone.

“Of course”, Iceland said and left. After talking with the Finn, he wasn’t worried anymore because he was quite sure Finland would not mess up anything. Iceland was aware of the fact that his whole family was damn weird, but Finland at least let everybody to mind their own damn business.

For Iceland’s displeasure, Finland turned out to be not the only surprise of the week, and the other one was way worse. After talking with the Finn he made his way to the cafeteria, but couldn’t find any of his team mates there although he had talked with Finland only few minutes and usually nobody ate that fast. He frowned and turned to check the team’s room. Otherwise he would have just eaten alone, but he was really running out of the time and he wanted to talk with few of them. He did found everybody in the team’s room, but the complete silence wasn’t a good sign nor were the looks he got when he stepped in.

“What is going on?” he asked frowning when the feeling in the room represented more a funeral than the normal team room. Everybody was in there but nobody was smiling, more they looked in between angry and disappointed. Iceland wondered what he had missed during the few last minutes. 

“Eiríkur”, Anna said with a serious tone after few pairs of eyes moved on to her, like asking her to take the charge, “did you really wrote this about us?” Iceland frowned, but took the papers the woman was offering him. It was just printed copies of some handwritten notes, the white office paper making strange contrast on the messier handwriting. Each page was labelled and  include translation of the notes to English. The translated parts were written on computer as was also the message on the first paper explaining shortly what the document was about. Iceland had seen the handwriting before, but the translations were new.

“I…” he said, shocked to see his own notes printed out like that, “I can explain.”

“I hope you do it well”, Anna said, “we think it is better we go to talk with the colonel. We are all…”

“How dared you?” Sigrid asked, clearly upset and avoiding looking directly at the Icelander, “I thought you were one of us, but… Why you even have these notes?”

“Calm down, Sigrid”, Anna said, “we are all shocked and upset, but Eiríkur deserves a chance to explain himself.”

“Not if he is a traitor”, Jens muttered and crossed his arms over his chest. Anna gave him a stern look, but the man didn’t seem to care.

“Let’s not call out anybody like that”, she said. Iceland had been looking down after he realized how bad the looks from his team were making him feel, but he did turn and walk out when Anna’s hand on his shoulder guided him. He heard others following behind him and briefly wondered if it looked just as bad it felt, like a executioner team leading their latest victim. But even if Iceland felt bad for getting that kind of attention, there were also other things in his mind. The first was the cursing about probably losing his last chance to figure out who was the spy because none of them would be eager to talk with him after this, and second was the confusion about how they had got copies of his notes and even translations. Iceland couldn’t understand why anybody would like to do that and how they had even got their hands on his notebook. He usually kept it always with him, thought after hospital he had been bit less careful and he hadn’t even wrote down anything in few days.

The Icelander was led by his team to the colonel’s office and when they were called in, he wondered what he was really going to offer as an excuse. The colonel knew what he was and why he was there, but nobody else was allowed to know and it wasn’t sure how they would take the excuse of making notes because he was playing games with his brother. Iceland had a bad feeling that this was not going to end well.

“Colonel”, Anna said and saluted, “we have a case we wish to discuss with you.” The colonel glanced around the room that seemed to barely be big enough to host eleven persons in, and then she nodded.

“A moment”, she said and held up her finger while pressing a button on her board, “could I have captain Thomassen here immediately. His team wishes to discuss about something.” 

“Of course, colonel”, a voice replied. The colonel proceeded to look at the officers in her office, clearly making some of them uncomfortable, but they were too upset to leave. When captain Thomassen arrived, wearing his civil clothes instead of uniform, the colonel nodded.

“Very well”, she said, “what is the problem?”

“We received this today”, Anna said and placed the papers on the desk for the colonel and captain to see, “it seems Andersen has been writing notes on us in manners that looks like he is gathering information. This has greatly upset us and he had promised an explanation we believed is better to be said in your presence.” 

“I see”, the colonel said, looking up, “unfortunately, Andersen has been ordered to not talk about his mission to anybody else than to the ones giving it to him.”

“I do not understand.”

“However”, the colonel sighed like she hoped she was not there at that moment, “I would be happy to offer an explanation that hopefully eases your mind. He was ordered by me to gather information of the team as part of the program and evaluation of your skills. As you see, the notes are about your skills on leadership, protocol, military background… This was meant to be the third person evaluation we mentioned during your first day here. I apologize if the process has hurt your feelings, I assure the notes were only meant to be seen by your trainers and purely used for only to evaluate you for this exact program.”

“In that case…” Anna started, but Jens interrupted her.

“How Andersen was the one selected for this?” he asked, “should the one collecting material be somebody not undergoing the same program?”

“Andersen is not officially in this program, but was invited in for this exact reason”, the colonel said sternly, “and for why he was selected…”

“Because he is the general’s brother”, Sigrid said and quickly closed her mouth when she realised she had blurted out her realization like that.

“Exactly”, the colonel said, “general Holgersen is his brother, and as Andersen already had some military background and education, he was suveren choice for this task.” The team shared looks that were way less angry. It seemed like the excuse was working, and Iceland was for sure happy the colonel had offered that one. 

“I am sorry, I made notes of you without asking”, he said and once again the team shared looks.

“Well”, Jens muttered, “I guess you were just doing your duty.”

“True”, Sigrid said, “we can’t blame you for that. We all are officers here and duty is a duty. You can’t go against orders.”

“There wasn’t even anything bad in there”, Kjerstina noted and Ola nodded next to her, “it was just normal things we shared with you and everybody knows about. Hardly anything to get really upset over.” There were few other nods and Iceland dared to breathe easily again. He looked briefly around, using a moment to see if anybody was giving him looks that told they knew even more than that. Sadly, he couldn’t see any new hints of the spy, but he briefly glanced at the captain and frowned when he saw the man staring back with weirdly blank expression. He hadn’t even said anything even if he usually was rather active in his team’s things.  

“Well, since this problem is now solved I suggest you return to your studies. Captain, if you could take your team back now, be so nice”, the colonel said, “and Andersen, I would like to talk with you a moment.” Iceland nodded and stood still while his team left the room. He felt bit better when the looks he got were more accepting, even bit apologizing as now the Icelander had failed his so called duty and they expected him to be punished from that. The colonel sighed when the door closed after the last one.

“I would like to hear what exactly was this about”, she said, giving the Icelander a stern look.

“Ma’am, I believe somebody has stolen my notebook and took copies of it”, Iceland said as that was the only explanation he could think about, “I did not do this.”

“I see”, the colonel said and frowned, “but why would anybody steal a notebook just to let your team to know what you have discovered of them? Even go through the bother of translating everything?”

“I do not know”, Iceland said honestly, “my guess is that the spy I am supposed to find decided to mess up things, but I do not know how this would have helped them anyway.”

“Or it was somebody else and maybe…”, the colonel muttered and stared at her desk, “I will need to inform your brother about this.”

“I wish you would not do that”, Iceland said and was met with a stern look from the colonel.

“And why do you believe I would be willing to take orders from you”, she asked, “Norge is my commander. I do what he had told me to do.”

“This is not a serious matter”, Iceland explained himself, “it is only about me and the bet I made with Norge.” The colonel seemed to not like the explanation because she glared at the Icelander and slowly shook her head.

“If you think”, she said, “that I earned my nation’s respect by not showing the strongest loyalty and following every order and that I care about what kind of games you are playing, you are wrong. You are dismissed.”

“Yes, ma’am”, Iceland said, knowing well it was time to not push the limits, but he turned around just before leaving the room, “one more question.”

“Yes”, the colonel said and somehow Iceland knew that if he was anybody else but Norway’s brother, he would have been chased out by a gun right then.

“Does captain Thomassen know the secret?” he asked.

“His rank is not high enough for that nor has he any special skills or knowledge to make him suitable to know about it”, the colonel replied and Iceland nodded.

“Thank you, ma’am.”

Iceland didn’t really hurry up to the training he was supposed to be in right then. He assumed that nobody was expecting him because they had all heard the colonel asking him to stay behind. Also, he really wanted to use a moment to think, to try to figure out who had stolen his notebook and for why, and also if anybody had looked like they knew more than they supposed. He was rather disappointed on himself for not paying more attention on the team when they had confronted him, but he had been so shocked and upset that he had forgot for a moment his original goal and the reason why the notebook existed at the first place. Still, he was not so deep in his thoughts that he didn’t notice Finland’s presence brushing his mind. He glanced to the direction it was coming from and frowned when he spotted the Finn sneaking around in camouflage gears. 

“What are you doing?” he asked after making sure nobody else was around and that the Finn really was gesturing him to come closer.

“Lurking around”, Finland replied, “okay, listen, did you know there are some extra people around here?”

“What you mean?”

“Other Icelanders”, the Finn said quickly like he was in hurry and his next action depended on Iceland’s reply, “the kind that should not be here.”

“What you even…”, Iceland started but stopped when he got what the Finn meant, “well… Yes, but I told her to leave.”

“Well, seems like she didn’t really listen”, Finland said, “you know, for population of barely over 300 000 your people really are all over the place, and those few seem to be specially active with being everywhere. Took me forever to track them all down and I gotta tell you, I didn’t even have time to call Sve and ask how he is doing. Longest three days ever.”

“Wait”, Iceland said, “can you describe me how she looked?” Finland nodded and proceeded to describe a woman that couldn’t be anybody else than Kristfríður and few other persons that Iceland was quite sure he had met before. He frowned.

“I saw her last time today morning”, Finland said.

“Okay”, Iceland muttered, “I think I should go and talk with her. I need to know why she is going against direct orders.”

“Wanna have some backup?”

“No, I will be fine”, Iceland said, “it is just few humans. Where you saw them again?” Finland pointed him to the right direction and Iceland decided he could sacrifice bit more of his training time to set right some things. It took him a while, but finally he saw a figure that looked familiar.

“Kristfríður!” he yelled and knew he had found the right person when the woman stopped and turned quickly. She wasn’t wearing an uniform anymore, but her clothes were plain and simple like she was trying to have on something that made her blend on background.  

“Ísland, good day”, she said like there was nothing wrong about her being right there.

“I thought I told you to go away from here”, Iceland said, “why you are still here?”

“Because you need me”, the woman replied stubbornly.

“I already made it clear I am doing fine just by myself”, Iceland noted, “and…”

“You need our protection!” the woman claimed, “we were not here and look what happened! You got food poisoned and were in car accident. Only we can keep you safe and that’s why you need to come with us back to home.”

“Listen…”

“Nobody else can help you” she continued like her life depended on it, “your family have failed you and the so-called team of yours abounded you the moment they heard what you are doing. Only we understand you and can serve you as you deserve.”

“Don’t talk about my family like that”, Iceland said angrily and then he realized what the woman had said, “what you mean? My team… You know what happened?”

“Of course I know, it is my duty to know everything happening around you”, the woman said, but Iceland had already found the last missing piece of the puzzle and it fitted right in.

“It wasn’t the spy”, he muttered with a frown, “it was you. You stole my notebook and gave the copies to them.

“I…”

“You wanted them to hate me”, Iceland said with the kind of calm voice that made people scared, “you wanted them to hate me so I would fail the bet and return to my land.”

“It was only for your own safety”, the woman claimed, “the accident with the drunk driver and the food poisoning you got from the salad already proved you need us. And what about the voice that made you feel ill?” She continued for a while, talking about all the weird things Iceland experienced last week and after every point Iceland’s frown deepened and he understood better what was going on.

“Why you know so much about something that happened when you were not even supposed to be here?” he asked coldly, “why it sound you know even more than anybody else me included?”

“I told already, it is my duty to…”

“No”, Iceland said, “you know because you planned it.”

“I did not…”

“You gave me food poisoning”, Iceland said, “gods, you did hurt me and put other people in danger just for this.”

“It was not…”

“Tell me the truth”, Iceland ordered, his voice turning completely cold and emotionless, “now.” It was clear the woman didn’t want to tell anything, but she had looked the Icelander nation into eyes and could not deny the order anymore. She closed her hands into fists and grimaced. 

“I did not hurt you”, she said, “I only wanted to show you how dangerous the world can be to you. I did it all only to get you home with us and to safety you belong to.” Iceland stared at her, feeling strange mix of emotions he wasn’t sure how to handle. It was true he didn’t really know the woman, but she had been with him during his study years and helped a lot with that. He had seen her to grow up from young having her first field duty into this clever woman who seemed to have more than one ace on her. She had hurt him. Iceland didn’t understand why learning about that hurt so much more than being driven over that car and why he even cared about her. She was just a human. 

“Go”, Iceland said, “I do not want to see you ever again.”

“Ísland…”

“Go!” he yelled and the woman flinched. It wasn’t often Iceland lost his temper, but when he did it wasn’t pretty. Even his family would have run at that moment so nobody blamed the poor woman for turning and leaving quickly. It was for the best, and when Iceland was alone again he took few deep breaths and focused to collect himself again. He understood then there was no way he could ever trust humans.

*****

“Hey, Nor-Nor”, Finland said to the phone, “my third favorite brother of law.” There was a deep silence that lasted a bit too long before the Norwegian replied.

“I thought we agreed you will never again call me that”, he said, “and last time I was still your brother.”

“Yeah, that was before you decided to push five nations’ work on me and Sve without any other explanation than that it was necessary”, Finland said, “and then it turned out you are overreacting once again.”

“I told you we will make it worth your time”, Norway noted, “and this is serious case. I told you all about it.”

“Yeah, but I have been around for a while now and I seriously think you would have saved so much time if you just let Is to deal with his stuff instead of going this far to play some silly games and pretend like everything is just fine while you save the day and so on”, the Finn said, “just saying.”

“I guess you did found something.”

“Yeah, I did”, Finland said, “you were right. The agents are here.”

“I knew it”, the Norwegian muttered, “we have to get them out. Did you fixed things already?”

“Nope”, Finland said, popping the p, “I didn’t need to. Island fixed it all by himself. He also figured out things, you know, and just fixed it.”

“I see.”

“He did it very well”, the Finn continued, “I was bit disappointed. I was so looking forward to get rid of some tension with a fair fist fight or something, but Island went and was civilized with this so I got just watch from afar.” 

“I see”, Norway muttered again, “are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

“Did you found out about their motive?”

“No, but I am sure if you just ask Island he will happily let you know”, Finland noted, “he doesn’t even seem to be scared or anything, I don’t even think there is anything wrong going on right now. Are you sure you are really not just making things bigger than they really are?”

“Very well”, Norway said but didn’t really sound satisfied and he ignored most of what the Finn said, “any idea how the agents managed to get in the school that is supposed to be the most secured in my land?”

“Oh, they found somebody who was going to start work here”, Finland said, “Marie something her name was, and then they just kidnapped her or something and took her place so they got one person in. The rest work outside with fake identities. I can send you more details later if you want to hunt them down even if I am sure Iceland can handle this by himself. He got things going on just fine.”

“I would appreciate that”, Norway said, again completely ignoring the Finn’s comment and making Finland roll his eyes for that, “I guess you can leave then if you wish so.”

“Damn I do wish so”, Finland said, “Sve is probably already having a burnout with all that work he got thrown on him. I need to go to save him.”

“Apparently he toss the coin whenever Dan’s work is placed on his desk and I have seen some side notes he writes so I am not sure about him suffering too much.”

“Well, he can’t prioritize everything, can he?” Finland muttered.

“He indeed seems to have some favorites in family”, Norway said, “well, thank you for the help.”

“You are welcome”, Finland said and paused for a moment before continuing, “and Nor, I know you have been horribly worried lately, but it seems like everything is under the control. Let Island deal with his business, would you?” There was a long silence but Finland was not in hurry so he let the Norwegian use some time to get his thoughts in order. He even smirked, because he knew Norway was starting to understand.

“You might be right”, he finally said with a sigh, “see you later, Fin.”

“Sure”, Finland said and closed the call. 


	15. Ballroom secret

“Hey”, Sigrid whispered and gently poked the Icelander’s arm, “how are you feeling?” Iceland raised his head from his hands and nodded slightly to show he was still alive. He wasn’t really feeling like he wanted to do anything and that’s why he was just sitting there. The last weeks had been already eventful enough for him and it was their last week, the last week of the bet too, so Iceland had lot more to focus on than just the lessons and normal socializing. The bandages and faking  injuries were really irritating him and he knew it looked like he was almost miraculously healing but he just couldn’t take it anymore. He was already using his arm like normally and wore only light bandages where people could see them. 

“Just fine”, Iceland muttered back, “why?”

“I just thought”, Sigrid said, offering an awkward smile, “you got a harsh week and you have been kinda quiet now… Was colonel really angry?”

“No, it was fine”, Iceland replied, “it is the last week anyway so I pretty much finished my task and they got what they wanted.”

“Good.”

“Have to say, I think Anna dealt with the incident really well”, Iceland noted, “she was fair and stern in just right amount.” Sigrid smiled and nodded.

“Yeah, she took the lead right away while we others were confused”, she noted, “shame you couldn’t really witness how we worked during the car accident. Jørgen was amazing with organizing everything under pressure and Jens took care of the situation with civilians around. I bet they are so disappointed now when they know the one making evaluation notes was the one knocked out on the ground.”

“Good thing the captain showed up too. They got some points from him, I think”, Iceland snorted, “Anna actually apologized later, but I don’t really think… I mean if I found out about somebody writing notes on me like that I wouldn’t have been so fair and kind about it. She didn’t even want to blame me until I reasoned myself.” 

“Yeah, she is like that”, Sigrid said with a gentle smile, “that’s why I am marrying her.” 

“What?” Iceland asked and stared at the woman. He had thought there was something going on between them two but it had never crossed his mind they were together like that. His best guess had been very good friends since childhood. 

“Don’t tell me now you are a homophobic”, Sigrid muttered with slight annoyance sneaking in her voice.

“No, I am not. I just never thought she is the fiancee of yours!” Iceland hurried to say, “and my brother is in relationship with another man and I don’t care, so it would be really strange of me to say anything else than congrats now.” The smile returned to Sigrid’s face and she laughed softly.

“I guess we are not the most obvious pair”, she noted, “and before you ask, she does call me by first name when we are alone or in civil. She is actually quite different in private. Noticeably less stern.”

“I can believe that”, Iceland said, briefly thinking how Sweden tended to suddenly change whenever Finland showed up, “she seems like the type who takes work seriously but knows where the borders go.”

“Yeah, that she is”, the woman said, “but it is quite challenging to have relationship and work at the same place so that’s why this is the last time we take the same project. After this Anna will continue further and I have decided to join UN-troops.”

“You will be a peacekeeper?”

“Yeah”, Sigrid nodded, “it had been my long time dream, actually. I just wanted to get married first, and I got some help from Ola to get in contact with right people and it took a while to do all that.”

“Cool”, Iceland said, “now I understand why you were saying so strange things when we talked at shooting range.”

“Oh yeah, I wasn’t yet sure if I trust on you yet”, the woman said with a shrug, “sorry about that. I gotta be careful with such scandalous relationship as this one. You know, two officers in same team marrying each other and so on.”

“None taken”, Iceland muttered. He really wasn’t the right person to blame anybody for keeping secrets, and when compared to his secrets, Sigrid’s were not even nearly as bad. Iceland was honestly happy for the women and their coming mariage, but he was also slightly disappointed that now he knew Anna and Sigrid both had sound reason to be so secretive. They had been his favorite picks for the spy, but he wasn’t so sure about that anymore.. So far the spy had been very good and Iceland really doubted they would drop the act for the last week so there was very little hope Iceland could figure out anything.

“How many brothers you have?” Sigrid suddenly asked after a brief moment. Iceland was so deep in his own thoughts that he didn’t even stop to think about the questions, but just answered automatically.

“One”, he said. 

“So does that means my OTP could be true?” the woman asked.

“What?” Iceland asked and looked up, realizing too late what Sigrid was after, “no.”

“Damn.”

“Why you have to be so creepy with that?” he asked dryly and the woman shrugged.

“Not my fault there is such tension between them”, she said, “everybody with some senses and eyes can see they are totally into each other! Even Anna almost admitted that.”

“Really?”

“Yeah!” Iceland snorted and wondered if he should humour the woman. It wouldn’t hurt and Denmark would be happy at least.

“Can you keep a secret?” he asked.

“Haven’t I already kept many?” Sigrid asked back and Iceland shrugged, deciding that was good enough for him.

“They have been together for years now”, he said, “don’t tell anybody. They wanna keep it low.”

“I am keeping that one close to my heart and  taking to grave with me”, Sigrid said with deadly serious tone and expression. Iceland would have loved to comment that, but just then captain Thomassen interrupted the teams’ evening by storming in almost way too unofficially and nearly hitting Lars-Emil with the door. His action was however soon forgotten when he got to announce the news.

“Dear team” he said with a slight smirk on his face, just barely staying in accepted level for military captain meeting his team that struggled to get over the surprise and to salute, “as you know, usually we don’t offer graduation prom for this program.”

“Yes, sir”, the team replied, few of them making clear questioning sound in it.

“And therefore I am happy to let you know you will get the party. At least in some way”, the captain said and took a position, making his announcement to get more official tone, “team, we have received code 0001A.” 

“Code 0001A”, Sigrid took a sharp breath and Anna quietly placed a hand on her shoulder for calming effect. Iceland glanced around, noting that Kjerstina and Jørgen looked excited too while Ola, Jens and Lars-Emil seemed to think they have got the biggest honour ever but were also slightly annoyed by that. Freyr looked calm and Iceland wondered briefly if he too didn’t really know what the code meant. It sounded familiar thought.

“The royal attending”, Ola said helpfully and Iceland nodded before he really realized what that meant.

“What kind of attending we are speaking about?” he whispered back, but the man only shrugged. Iceland didn’t need to wait for the answer long thought, because the captain continued the announcement after letting them get over the surprise for the while. 

“The royal family is hosting one of the traditional ballroom parties”, he said, “unfortunately, the original team assigned has lost some members for flu and therefore we were asked to take a step and help them out. The mission is easy. We are not responsible of the security, but part of the attendants. To put simply, the job is to stand, look pretty and dance when somebody asks it. Am I understood?”

“Yes, sir!”

“Good”, the captain nodded, “the uniforms are provided. Take note that you leave your rank status signs off. Those are not needed for that night.” 

“Yes, sir.” Captain Thomassed nodded satisfied and left the room, leaving the team to discuss about the news.

“What he meant we are doing?” Iceland asked with a frown and ignored the frantic way Sigrid was speaking to Anna and Kjerstina. 

“Dancing”, Ola said, “and looking pretty.”

“Yes, but…”

“It is a royal ball. A traditional one”, Lars-Emil noted, “so there are always men and women from military for basically to offer dance for those who came without partner or can’t find any, or helping the royal family. Just looking official.”

“Basically level up service maid”, Jørgen smirked, “weird, actually. Usually they give this job for the noobs.”

“Noobs?”

“Jørgen’s term for those who just have started their military training”, Sigrid commented and quickly got back to her own conversation that was almost completely lead by her.

“Yeah”, the man nodded. Iceland had noted that once they had learnt he didn’t really qualification to the program he was in and that his brother was one of the beloved generals, his team mates had continued their friendly and almost affectionate way to treat him but they were also offering much more explanations on things they thought Iceland didn’t know about. Iceland found it weird, but only explanation he was offered was that he was now their mascot. He wasn’t sure what to think about that. 

“So. Dancing.”

“Starting to regret your decision to stay with us anyway?” Ola asked with a smirk and Iceland rolled his eyes. 

“I thought nothing bad couldn’t happen in a week”, he muttered. Because of the stupid notebook and the excuse the colonel had used to save the situation, Iceland had told his team that he had been allowed to stay in for the last week too because he could have special mention on his CV about the program even if he wouldn’t graduate as others did. They had been surprising happy about that and quickly took the Icelander back in, all forgotten and forgiven. 

“Everything bad always happens on the last week”, Jörgen said like it was the known fact, “just think about the training we gonna have on the last weekend. Nato troop training. Nasty stuff always happens during Nato troop training.”

“What kind of nasty stuff?”

“The driving freaking expensive war ship against oil tanker and sinking it kind of nasty stuff”, the man replied, “so…. Everybody here knows how to dance?”

 

Few days later Iceland found himself standing in row in the royal palace with his team, listening the final instructions for their so called mission and feeling awkward in uniform that didn’t really fit him. It looked fine, just a simple one without any rank or team markings, but it wasn’t his clothes so he felt irritated. He did his best to ignored it and focus on another thing irritating him, that unsurprisingly was his brother.

Since they had got the royal attending mission and Jørgen had mentioned how strange it was for their team to get that one, Iceland had had a haunting feeling that his brother had something to do with that. After all, Norway had rather lot of power in his own land and also trait to put his fingers on everything and no shame about how he used that power. Iceland was ready to bet his national budget for Norway being behind that all, but he just didn’t know why the Norwegian was doing this. There was only few days until the deadline and Norway was really close to winning the bet anyway as Iceland only had few good guesses about the spy and no real facts. 

Iceland hold back a sigh when he felt familiar presence brushing his mind, barely noticeable because of the distance and all the people but still a clear sign that the Norwegian personification was attending the party too. Of course he was. There was no way he was missing a party and a chance to see his brother annoyed, Iceland thought and focused on the instructions. Iceland had understood that most of the team mates had took a part of such missions during their early training, but that didn’t stop them showing different levels of excitement or annoyance depending on their opinions about dance parties. Still, now that they stood ready, everybody had almost identical serious looks on their face and they kept their posture perfectly in their similar uniforms. 

Iceland was stationed near the doors with Sigrid, Jørgen and few members from the other team. It wasn’t bad place to stand as they could see people going past, but be away from the most of crowds. There didn’t seem to be big need for dance partners as most of the things they did was to stand and either answer to the questions people asked or fetch somebody that could answer in case they didn’t know. Iceland had felt his brother closer few times, but so far he hadn’t actually seen the Norwegian and he was giving himself free hands with passing some time by imagining what kind of great entrance that man was planning to do. Some of his ideas were rather hilarious and he was really going to share them with Finland and Denmark later on. Probably when Norway wasn’t present because the Dane always became bit boring about Norway related jokes when the Norwegian himself was in hearing distance. 

Iceland was so deep in his thoughts that he didn’t first see the young woman approaching him. Jörgen had just left with a quest to fetch a waitress to tell more about the meny, and one of the other team’s members had given permission to have a short break. Things were quite calm when most of the people had moved to ball room, but the young woman seemed to be determined about who she was dancing with because she walked directly to Iceland.

“Hey”, she said and Iceland blinked, recognizing the woman as one of the young princesses of the Norwegian court.

“Hey”, he said, guessing the woman had also recognized him as personification because she was looking at him like she knew him. Sigrid moved slightly next to him and Iceland quickly added, “your highness.”

“May I have a dance?” she asked with a sweet smile nobody could have said no. Especially if that somebody was an Icelandic personification that was foolish enough to make a bet with his brother and then ended up to attend a royal ball room party as military adjutant. 

“Of course, your highness”, he replied and offered his arm, which the princess took eagerly. She lead him into the ballroom and luckily picked up a corner that wasn’t too crowded. Iceland knew well how to dance and was familiar with several different styles, so he easily picked up the right one and followed the music. 

“Norge told me you are here, but I didn’t believe”, the princess said, confirming Iceland’s suspect about her recognizing him, “good thing I still knew how you look. It was so many years ago I met you last time!”

“I apologize”, Iceland said, wondering how many years it was exactly and if the princess looked familiar mostly because he had seen her mother, grandmother or great-great-great mother. He had noted that sometimes people really looked a lot like their ancestors, “it is not often I visit court.”

“Way too rarely”, the princess said, “but Norge talks about you a lot so it feels like I know you so well. That’s why I thought I have to come to offer a dance. It must to be boring to stand there like that all evening.”

“It is quite uneventful duty”, Iceland replied and the princess gave him a look.

“You don’t need to talk so officially”, she said, “you sound exactly like Norge when he start to rant about some old things! You are almost like a same family, Island. Actually, do you even have a status in court? Could I say you are adopted brother of mine?”

“Not from the current Norwegian court, I am afraid”, Iceland said because he remembered well how he had declined the honour and claimed it was enough he had been granted titles from Danish court and the old Norwegian one from the time before the union, “sorry. Nore… Norge told me to talk like that to royals.”

“When that happened?”

“In 12th century, I guess”, Iceland shrugged slightly and the princess laughed.

“Of course”, she said, “we are little more unofficial nowadays, you know.”

“Seems so”, Iceland replied and smiled when the princess laughed again. He was starting to relax again, realizing that the woman wasn’t after anything else than a dance. It wasn’t often Iceland did things with royalties, and most of his experiences came from times when one had to be very careful to talk with nobles and Norway had made sure to even protect and hide his brother from them in fear that something would happen. No wonder Iceland was on his toes whenever anybody with a royal title showed up. The princess asking him dancing now was however completely opposite of the horror images Iceland had learnt to connect with royalty, and they ended up chatting quite lot while dancing few songs. It was so pleasant conversation that Iceland missed the fact his brother was finally showing up.

“I am sorry, miss”, Norway said, showing clear familiarity by ignoring the title and using one that sounded more like a nickname, “could I borrow your dance partner for a moment.”

“Of course, Norge”, the princess replied happily and briefly touched the hand Norway had used to get her attention, and did the perfect curtsey before walking away. Norway was quickly to took her place before Iceland could run away.

“I was wondering where you were hiding”, Iceland muttered, feeling slightly weird about dancing with his brother but quickly noting it wasn’t any difference for those times he had danced with Denmark during their dance lessons the Dane had been so excited about.

“I would have arrived earlier but you seemed to rather enjoy your time”, the Norwegian replied with a soft smile.

“Isn’t it bit strange for us to be dancing like this?”

“How? This is very innocent dance and fits even for family members.”

“Two males in royal ball dancing together?” Iceland asked and Norway snorted when he got what the Icelander meant. He shook his head.

“Of course not”, he said, “firstly, this is year 2018. Nobody cares at this point. Secondly, with who you think I have been dancing most of the evening? You know he loves ballroom dances and by now everybody have seen enough to not pay attention on more.”

“Oh”, Iceland said, “so Dan is here too.”

“He wasn’t going to miss this at any price”, Norway replied and chuckled, “poor man danced himself to exhaustion. He is now upstairs to get some of his fit back because apparently he promised the last dance of night for me although I have never heard such promise.”

“I hope my duty is over before he comes back.”

“I wouldn’t put lot of hope on that”, Norway replied and Iceland rolled his eyes. 

“So”, he said, “what is this all about?”

“What all?”

“Ballroom dance?” Iceland asked, “don’t even try to say you have nothing to do with me being here right now.”

“Well”, Norway said, “I do want to talk with you and this was the only way I could have come up this quickly.”

“How about just calling?”

“How boring.”

“This was Dan’s idea”, Iceland said, “right?”

“He might have suggested something like this although I believe his motive was more like something about getting a chance to dance and make me relax after such stressful period.”

“I knew it”, Iceland said and frowned, “what you mean? Stressful period? Is all okay?”

“Of course”, Norway sighed, “I have just made some hard realizations and being almost bullied by our  _ dear  _ Finnish family member about it, and so I thought I need to talk with you.”

“Can’t it wait for few days?” Iceland asked, “you were going to tell me everything about this all anyway after the training, and it is just couple of days more.” Norway seemed to hesitate, but still he nodded.

“I guess”, he said.

“Everything is fine, right?”

“Of course”, Norway said and this time Iceland didn’t see lie on his eyes, “it… the thing was mostly for my overreacting and it has been now solved.”

“Good”, Iceland muttered, “you heard about what happened at school?”

“Yes.”

“All of it?” Iceland asked and Norway nodded.

“It wasn’t coincidence that Finland was there, if you were referring to that”, he said and Iceland nodded.

“And you are still just like… Calm? Letting me to do my things?”

“That is part of the realizations I mentioned”, Norway replied. 

“Good”, Iceland said, a smile appearing on his lips even if he tried to keep it down, “really good.” Norway didn’t say anything, but he seemed to be paying lot of attention on Iceland’s expression and be content on what he saw. They danced a moment more until Denmark showed up, looking completely fresh in his ceremonial uniform. Iceland wondered if Norway had said the Dane being exhausted only to give some other explanation than “I told him to stay away for a moment” as a reason for why Denmark hadn’t come to bother them right away. 

“Hey, handsome”, the Dane said and winked at the Norwegian, “I hope you still got some place for me on your dance card.”

“You mean that piece of paper you gave me after you wrote your name all over it?” Norway asked, “because then I unfortunately have to inform you that there is no way you can find any free space on that paper anymore.” He continued to dance with Iceland and Denmark was following their steps, creating rather strange trio dancing. Iceland really wondered why people were not paying more attention at them but maybe stuff like this was just normal in royal balls. It wasn’t like he had attended many before. 

“Ah, so some lucky guy booked you for all evening”, Denmark said happily, “could I have his name?”

“Sure”, Norway said, “it is Danmark. Or Danmakr. You misspelled your own name twice.”

“I was in hurry and my wrist hurt”, the Dane offered a quick explanation, “have you any idea how long time it actually takes to write a paper full?”

“You could have picked up a smaller piece.”

“I wanted it to be big.”

“Could you let me go if you are here only to do that awkward flirting of yours”, Iceland interrupted, “I am pretty sure you would enjoy it much more in private, you perverts.” Norway chuckled and Denmark laughed loudly, but at least the dancing stopped and Norway let him go. Iceland’s luck was short however, because the Dane took his arms quickly.

“Don’t go too far, Nor”, he said before starting to lead the Icelander into dance, “we have some more dancing to do!”

“Sure”, Norway said and offered his brother the last smile before disappearing into the crowd. Iceland sighed and looked up to the smiling Dane.

“So?”

“So what?”

“Are you planning something too?” he asked.

“Usually you don’t want to know about my plans but since you asked, me and your brother are…”

“I meant plans that could have something to do with me”, Iceland said quickly, “those other plans you can still keep just for yourself.” Denmark smirked and nodded. Iceland noted that the Dane let him lead the dance and that was making him feel strangely good even if he didn’t just stop it. 

“No”, Denmark said with a shrug, “I just wanted to dance.”

“So you told Nore that the best way to talk with me is to have him telling the school to send my team to replace some other students to the royal ball just so that I would have to be on duty here and available for dance”, Iceland said with a sigh, “just that you could have a dance with me?”

“Pretty much yeah.”

“Why can’t anybody just ask me to do things?” Iceland asked, getting a smirk and shrug back from the Dane.

“If I showed up and asked you to come to ballroom dance with me, would you have said yes?”

“Probably not.”

“Well, there is your reply!” Denmark said with a laugh, “although, to be honest I did this more for Nor. He has been very stressed lately and deserved some fun leisure time.”

“How is ballroom dancing fun leisure time?”

“How? He loves ballroom dancing!”

“I wouldn’t be sure about that”, Iceland muttered, “he always says it is you who likes this and that’s why he follows with.”

“Well”, Denmark said, “you know now he never tells anybody he loves me, but he does so anyway? You think he would announce his love for ballroom dances if his hesitancy to tell about his favourite things is that strong?”

“That makes sense”, Iceland admitted after brief thinking, “so you organized this all just to give him a good chance to accept the invitation to stress relieving ballroom dance without really admitting he likes ballroom dances?”

“Yeah!”

“I am starting to understand why neither of you ever ask me anything”, Iceland snorted.

“I did also want to meet you”, Denmark smiled, “and he likes to see you. Makes him relaxed, you know, and because all that stress was because of you, I…” The Dane quickly shut up and looked bit too innocent. Iceland sighed.

“You have mentioned him being stressed already three times”, he said, “and I am not blind. I knew something was going on.”

“Yeah.”

“But he is okay, right?”

“Of course. Turned out we were worried without reason”, Denmark said, “but oh boy, the next family meeting will be a freaking war! Finny got royally pissed off and I know I don’t wanna face him and Sve never even tries to control that man, so if I was you I would arrive like few hours late or something.”

“Fully noted”, Iceland said, “you aren’t missing it?”

“Unfortunately I have promised to stand by Nor’s side no matter what so I am gonna sacrifice myself”, the Dane joked, “I go down with him.”

“Loser”, Iceland rolled his eyes, “if this was all you wanted to talk about how about you let me go back to my duty of standing still and looking pretty?”

“So that is how it is called nowadays”, Denmark said, “you don’t wanna enjoy my time more?”

“I am quite sure I will spending lot of time with you just in few days”, Iceland said, “but before that I have duties to do and tomorrow evening we are going to be sent for Nato troop training out to the Norwegian sea.”

“Nato troop training? That is fun!”

“You have been doing that?” Iceland asked and Denmark nodded happily. 

“Yeah, I was even in the last one.”

“Were you one sinking that war ship?” Denmark gave the Icelander a look, showing his displeasure of such accusations.

“That was uncalled for”, he said, “I am not even allowed to operate big war ships. Not after what happened to warship Wasa!”

“Of course… Wait, that is Swedish thing”, Iceland frowned, “were you even there?”

“Of course I wasn’t there”, Denmark said and after eye roll added, “at least if Sverige asks.” His reply made Iceland frown more.

“Sometimes I am not sure if you are joking or serious”, he said, “and that worries me.”

“You brother used to say same, but he has since accepted it as part of his life”, the Dane replied right away and smirked, “okay then. I will let you go and find Nor to dance with. See you soon again.” He stopped the dance and bowed, holding one of the Iceland’s hand just like he had taught during their dancing lessons long time ago.

“Good”, Iceland muttered and with some hesitation continued, “Dan, take care of Nore, okay?”

“Oh yes, I will.”

“You could have said that in way that didn’t sound like that”, Iceland sighed, “and by the way, if you see a woman wearing similar uniform with me and giving you weird looks, I recently told her that the two generals she is creepily idolizing are together for real and she liked that.”

“Which woman… Ah”, Denmark smiled when he recalled the said woman, “wow, thanks, Is!”

“You are welcome”, Iceland replied. He had known the Dane would be happy about that and he wasn’t surprised at all to see the man smiling happily when he left. It really didn’t take much to make him feel good. 

 

Norway had decided his waiting place carefully, picking up probably the only area and room where the noises of party didn’t reach, the view from windows was amazing and little to none spent time so he could freely be alone with his thoughts. Although he didn’t really thought anything special, mostly let his mind wander around how the view from window had changed during the years. He wasn’t too worried about ditching the dance floor. Denmark would find him anyway, and he wasn’t even slightest surprised when the Danish man showed up only few minutes after.

“I thought I told you to not go too far”, he complained with a smile and Norway snorted.

“When you think what happened last time you told me that, you should be just glad this time  around I only went to another room and not to other country”, the Norwegian replied, turning to look at the man who was holding his arms ready for hug and slowly creeping closer, “are you trying to sneak attack me or give a hint of something?”

“Uh, yeah? Hug?” Denmark asked hopefully.

“I thought we talked about a dance or two or forty six and half as your paper stated?” Norway asked back.

“Even better”, the Dane said and closed the distance, wrapping his arms around the other man with familiarity, “you didn’t talk with Is like you said you would.”

“He told me it can wait few days”, Norway replied, “trust me, I wanted to tell him right now. It was his idea to wait and it indeed is just few days until...”

“That sounds like procrastinator speaking”, Denmark noted.

“I am not…”, Norway started but sighed then and leaned back against the Dane’s chest, “maybe I am.”

“It is okay”, Denmark muttered, “saying hard things takes a while.”

“Shouldn’t be this difficult when one is speaking to his own brother”, Norway noted, “all I would need to say is ‘Island, I am sorry about being over-protective and luring you to leave your land only because I thought there is something dangerous going on and I didn’t trust a moment that you could solve the problems by yourself or that I could even tell you what was <really going on behind your back’. Certainly nothing difficult to say.”

“That actually sounds very difficult to say”, Denmark said. 

“Thank you for your uttermost support”, Norway replied dryly, “I trained in front of mirror.”

“Really?”

“No”, Norway said, “I was kidding.”

“Okay”, Denmark mumbled. He rested his head on the Norwegian’s shoulder and swing them slowly from side to side. It looked ridiculous, as Norway’s back was still turned to the Dane, and nowhere close to actual dancing, but there wasn’t anybody witness it so they didn’t care. 

“It wasn’t completely waste of time after all”, Norway said after a while, breaking the brief silence and making Denmark open his eyes. The Danish man had relaxed and somehow managed to almost snooze off right there while standing. 

“Yeah?”

“My spy has been impressed of Island”, the Norwegian explained, “said he had been getting well along with the team and doing good job overall, both with solving the bet and learning. He is sure it is only question of time when Island will discover him, if hasn’t already.”

“That’s good to hear”, Denmark said, proud tone in his voice.

“Yes”, Norway muttered, “all this hassle wasn’t completely in vain.”

“You know”, Denmark said with a slight sigh and rubbed his cheek against the Norwegian’s, “nothing was in vain. We thought Island was in danger. We did as we have done hundreds of times to keep him safe and we just forgot to think and failed to realize he is not the same vulnerable little nation anymore. We followed our instincts and experience, and that would have been the right thing to do if the worst case scenario would have been true.”

“And once again the Dane says the wise things”, Norway said, small sound of amusement sneaking into his voice, “already second time this month. Sverige will never believe this.” Denmark laughed and hugged the Norwegian tighter, stopping their weird slow swinging dancing.

“Who cares what that grumpy Swede thinks?” he asked, “he can’t even do my job. Totally incompetent.” 

“I think he might be messing up your work for fun”, Norway said and sighed, “and who knows what Finland has made with mine. He was being quite straight forward with his opinions on this mission of ours and we both know Sverige is not going to hold him back.” 

“We will just have to send them away for holiday and fix things while they are not home”, Denmark said and glanced at the window with thoughtful expression on his face, “and also have our revenge then.”

“That sounded much more like the Dane I know”, Norway noted with chuckle. Denmark laughed softly and nodded. They shared a moment there, finally having time and mood for each other after the months of stress and worry. Few kisses were shared and they danced for real bit more, although without the music. 

“Maybe we can go home now”, Norway said after a while, whispering because he was so close the Dane there wasn’t need for louder tone “I am tired.”

“Of course”, Denmark said, smiling when he pressed a kiss on the man’s cheek, “let’s get some rest for you.”


	16. Captain's secret

“But did you see Andersen here dancing with a princess?” Jens asked and slammed his hand on Iceland’s shoulder, followed by a loud laugh, “are you gonna climb up the social class ladder?”

“Oh shut up”, Iceland replied.

“Can he get any higher anyway?” Ola asked, “lad’s brother is the highest man in the military.”

“Marrying into royalty is higher. He would be a prince or something.”

“Come on, she is too young anyway and I am not… It was just a dance”, Iceland sighed and rolled his eyes. He should have guessed the team would not miss his dances for that evening, but he had hoped they would. 

“She is 22”, Jens noted, “you are what… 25?”

“23”, Iceland muttered. He didn’t actually remember which age he was going with that time, but that was pretty good guess anyway and way better than his real age.

“So one year’s difference. That is nothing.” Iceland shrugged and shook his head. Of course he couldn’t just reveal the truth and tell them that the real age difference was closer to thousand years and that he had no interest to get involved with anybody like that. Especially with somebody who would just get old and die while he stayed same centuries to come.

“I saw the generals dancing together”, Sigrid noted with a joyful tone and, because it wasn’t the first time she had said that since the ballroom night, most of the team just smiled and ignored her. 

“Sigge…”, Anna sighed and glanced at her wife to be. 

“But Anna”, Sigrid said and gave Iceland a pleading look. The Icelander replied with a short nod. The world would not go down if Anna knew too and it wasn’t like Denmark and Norway were even trying to be a secret. They literally had gone crazy the moment same sex relationships again became accepted in society and they didn’t bother with hiding at all. Also, Iceland was tired of the secrets. 

Once Iceland had given his quiet acceptance, Sigrid smiled and reached to whisper into Anna’s ear. Iceland could see the woman’s expression change and Sigrid nodding when Anna mouthed “really?” to her, for once dropping her usual official attitude. Iceland rolled his eyes and focused on others so the couple would have some privacy to discuss about things.  

Not that there was much privacy available. They were all sitting on back of a truck meant for troop transporting. During the past months Iceland had become familiar with the such way to travel so the movements and small space didn’t bother him anymore so much. He could even focus on his thoughts or talk with others, which really was a step forward from the first time when he had just used all he had to hold his balance and not get motion sickness. He glanced around, not looking for a conversation partner but just checking what he actually knew of each his teammates. 

Sigrid and Anna were talking to each other with low voices, no doubt it being something about the generals. Iceland had already decided to not focus on them, because there was no way either was the spy. They both had a reason to be there and their reasons were linked together. However, Norway had sent only one spy. Sigrid’s difficulties to keep the secret about generals from Anna confirmed that she couldn’t be the spy at least. 

Near them, but still far enough to miss the whispered conversation, Kjerstina and Lars-Emil were comparing something from their phones. Iceland had ruled out Kjerstina already long time ago because of her sound alibi to be there, but Lars-Emil was another case. The man’s story was just a bit too much, but it was also the kind of story that couldn’t be anything else than true. He had even showed his ID-card to show it was at least partly true. Still Iceland couldn’t fully take him off the list.

Next he glanced at the captain Thomassen who was traveling with them. He didn’t talk with anybody and seemed to be in his own thoughts. Iceland hadn’t paid too much attention on their team leader, out of the fact that he had lessons with him, but he agreed with the rest of the team that the man was doing good job. With that thought he moved on to Ola, Jørgen and Jens who were all chatting in more and less loud voices, which meant that Jørgen was talking loud enough for everybody to hear while Ola and Jens were staying on their inside voices. That made their conversation sound weirdly one-sided, but at least Iceland was sure they were not talking about anything too interesting or suspicious. Just like Lars-Emil, Ola’s story made Iceland think twice but it was also the kind of story he wanted to believe in. Ola was also not hesitating to share his experience with his team which supported the idea of him really done that all once, but then again his name sounded more than little made up and it would suit Norway’s poor humour to send in somebody using name Ola Nordmann, Iceland thought.

With Jens Iceland was quite sure he wasn’t the spy, it was just a feeling he was eager to take in, but Jørgen made him hesitating. There wasn’t really anything too suspicious on the man, which would make sense because Norway wouldn’t have sent in beginners, but he was just bit too good. He was social, talkative, a medic. All those things made Iceland to think twice.

Then there was Freyr. Would his brother really go that far that he made an Icelander to be the spy? Would any Icelander be willing to play that role? Iceland wasn’t sure and he hoped Freyr had nothing to do with the case because he had honestly got enough of Icelandic spies and agents for few decades. 

Iceland didn’t have much to go with and he was running out of the time, but he had at least some leads. One of the most important ones was the voice he had heard to call his name. That had happened twice, first when he had woke up in bathroom and second time after the car accidents. Both times he had been too confused to focus and recognize the voice, but because there had been no other nations present it had to have been the spy who panicked or thought calling his real name would magically made him jump up healthy again. That at least dropped few persons off the list, and he focused on thinking who had been in there during both events.

In the bathroom he had seen Ola, Kjerstina, Anna, Freyr and the captain, and he had been out during the accident with Sigrid, Anna, Kjerstina, Jørgen, Freyr and Jens. That left him with only three people, who all were the most unsuspected from the team. It couldn’t be Anna, she had reason to be in the team but she was also the one that had so suddenly accepted her invitation for this year. Kjerstina had been trying to get into team for years, but would she really had agreed to get in for exchange to be a spy in two nations’ game? Iceland didn’t really feel like she would have been happy about that. Then Freyr, who was an Icelander… Iceland sighed and was sarcastically happy about the long ride they had. Hours of nothing else to do than think. There was something he was missing, so he looked around again with a slight frown on his face. There had to be something important he was missing.

His eyes found the captain, who looked back just like he was observing the team too and it happened to be Iceland’s turn to be looked at right then. Iceland frowned. There had been always something strange going on about the captain, but he had always ruled it off as nothing. The captain knew his brother was the general, and that was why he had been acting bit differently around Iceland. He had probably been given the same excuse others had after they found the notebook. That was why he hadn’t been too surprised about the whole incident and he hadn’t even commented it at all. He didn’t know about the bigger secret, Iceland had asked that from the colonel. There was no way… 

Iceland’s eyes widened when the pieces started to found their places. Thomassen had been present during the both accidents, Sigrid had mentioned about the captain showing up after the car accident just in time to take the control of the situation. He wasn’t supposed to know about personifications, but still he had been acting strangely polite but also relaxed around him, which Iceland had assumed to be because of his general brother. Thomassen had been the one staying in the hospital room with him, but Iceland knew his brother. Norway would have never compromised his brother’s safety and by his order the best one should have been staying with him. Still, from the team of the elite officers his pick had been the captain. He would have choice the best one to be the spy. Captain Thomassen wasn’t a teacher in the school and neither was he part of the staff. He was an officer specially selected to be the team leader although he had never before served in that position and his selection had been sudden. He might have been the leader, but even the leader was part of the team. That was something Iceland had been told all these six months almost every day; the leader is part of the team. 

“Noregur, you absolute damn… Troll”, Iceland muttered in his own language, earning few looks from his team. 

“Okay, listen up everybody!” Captain Thomassen suddenly said, easily getting everybody’s attention away from Iceland, “it is time to go through our plan again! We will arrive to Narvik soon and the schedule is tight so take care you all know exactly what you are supposed to do.”

“Yes, sir!” they all replied.

**** 

“Oh, hell”, Jens muttered angrily, “this is why I am in air force and not in navy!”

“Shut up and focus!” Ola yelled back. The situation had really brought up the true nature of the older man and now it was easy to believe that everything he had told about had been true.

“Just my luck to get into group that will go with navy training”, Jens muttered, but now with lower tone and continuing his task at same. 

“We were sent here because the team is formed by officers from different branches so they had to give us something that we all could do”, Kjerstina explained calmly, “and it so happens that navy training is much easier than learning to pilot a military aircraft in ten minutes.” 

“Easy to you say”, Jørgen noted, “you are in navy.”

“And that’s why she is leading this damn team for this mission!” Ola said, “quit complaining, we have stuff to do.”

“The forecast is in!” Sigrid announced and jumped down the narrow stairs, “we are heading into storm! The captain ordered preparations to start immediately!” 

“Thank you”, Kjerstina said and started to guide the team quickly. Things went smoothly and they did everything they had to without problems, until Jørgen happened to glance out from the small window. He stopped, leaned closer and used his sleeve to wipe the glass. Then he cursed.

“There are some hatches open outside!” he yelled. Kjerstina ran to see and cursed softly when she realized the man was right. 

“We better get those closed before water gets in”, she said and looked around. At that moment the storm hadn’t hit them yet, but the wind had turned harsh and the ship move noticeably more along the high waves that threw water on the deck. The ship’s captain had already ordered outside decks emptied and the hatches should have been closed right then. Either they had been closed poorly or somebody hadn’t done their job.

“I can do it”, Iceland said and continued when Kjerstina gave him hesitating look, “I am still wearing harness, just fetch robe and I will be okay.” He tugged the strong harness around his chest and Kjerstina nodded. Just before they had received the first warning about the coming storm they had been training extreme evacuation situations on sea with the other troops. Iceland hadn’t had time to get the harness off after that.

“Very well”, she said and pointed at Jørgen, Sigrid and Ola, “you help him.”

“Yes, ma’am”, they replied and soon Iceland found himself standing out on the deck, fighting against the wind and wondering what in hell made him volunteer for the task. From inside the situation hadn’t looked so bad at all, but outside without anything sheltering him he felt the full power of the wind and waves. He had barely gone few meters and already he had got wet from the salty, cold water and the wind was coming in as sudden gusts that tried to throw him off the ship. He had already stumbled few times, the robe attached on his harness tightening when the people prepared to drag him back in. 

It is Denmark’s fault, Iceland thought and grimaced when his numb fingers found the hatches’ locks, he and his stories from the wilder days. He always make stuff like this sound so much easier. Iceland could almost hear the Dane’s voice telling him how this all would have been just like children’s play for him. Back then in time of long ships they had had no forecast warnings and big ships, no, it had been all about surviving or dying. Iceland cursed and reminded himself to tell Denmark to shut up next time he started with storytelling.

Iceland somewhat managed to get all the hatches closed and locked, which took much more time than it would have normally took, and he showed thumb up so others knew he had been successful. He got a tug from robe as answer and nodded to himself when he started to make his way back to safety. 

He was less than halfway there when things went wrong. First, a strong wave hit the ship, making it tilt. Iceland would have somewhat managed to survive that, but right after the hit of a sudden gust came out of nowhere and made the Icelander lost his balance. He slid to the side, the robe and harness stopping him falling off just in time. Iceland felt nothing but fear when he saw the dark water below him, and no matter how well he knew he could not die like that, he was afraid. He had never been so afraid and for a moment he could only stare and lay there, hold on ship only by the robe attached on his harness. 

Then he heard a soft click that sounded so strange and wrong. It was so little sound, so innocent and almost impossible because the sea and wind overcame all the other sounds. How he still heard it, Iceland didn’t know and he had no time to wonder because once the click sounded, the pressure from robe disappeared. Iceland tried to grab something, anything to hold on, but his hands found nothing. Just before he hit the water he wondered if dying really hurt and if anybody would be with him when he woke up again. He had always been told coming back from death was much easier when you were not alone. He didn't want to be alone then.


	17. Last secret

Iceland knew he was very alive when he found himself laying on the ground and feeling pain all around his body. He moved only so much he needed so he could throw up all the water he had got in him. The salt and liquids from his stomach burnt his throat and mouth, but he couldn’t stop until he had completely emptied himself and even then he heaved few times, trying to take control of his body. He took a shaggy breath, testing how much such action would hurt, and found out it hurt a lot. He took few breaths more, trying to focus and held his upper body up with his arms.

“How it is going?” a voice asked from side and Iceland glanced up. He was having some problems with focusing his sight and the evening had already turned dim, but he still recognized the man sitting other side of a small fire, even if he looked like he had just gone through hell and was barely holding up.

“Good”, Iceland said, keeping his replies short because speaking hurt too, “living. You?”

“Living as well”, captain Thomassen replied, “good to see you up. You got me worried for a moment.” Iceland heaved himself on side and to sitting position. His head replied with making him feel nausea, but there wasn’t anything more to throw up so he just watched the world move around a bit. All his bones seemed to be okay, but there were bruises and even some cuts all over his body where he had hit the deck while falling off. One specially large bruise on his head worried him a bit and probably explained why it felt so hard to use the eyes right then.

“This might sound like a weird question”, he said, closing his eyes so the weird sight wouldn’t make him throw up again, “but were I… dead or…?” He didn’t feel like he had died but then again he didn’t really have experience on that. He only knew what others had told him. 

“You have been breathing the whole time if you mean that”, the captain replied with bit too non-surprised voice, “I don’t have anything to treat you with me, but I checked your condition as well as I could.”

“Okay, good”, Iceland said and looked around, trying to get rid of the dizzy feeling, “where are we? Why are you here too? I only remember falling off the ship by myself. Where are others? What happened?”

“We are stranded on an uninhabited island somewhere in Norwegian sea”, the captain said calmly as somebody would do in accident situations to keep people from panicking, “I don’t know exactly where, but somewhere. I can see land in distance but too far to take contact.  I saw you falling off and jumped after. Others are still on ship, so far that I know, and probably organizing search party for us. It has been few hours since the accident. You lost your consciousness when you hit the water, but we floated for a while until ending up here.” The island they had ended up was barely a one. More it seemed to be just few stones raising from sea and few stubborn trees growing against all odds, forming some kind of platform to stay on. They were staying on side of rocks that offered some shelter against weather and a dry place to sit on.

“You jumped after me?” Iceland asked and the man nodded, “why?”

“I didn’t really think at that moment”, the captain replied, “I saw one of my team members falling off and all I could do was to grab the nearest life preserver and jump after. Good thing I did. You were already going unconscious and going under when I managed to get to you.”

“So you saved my life”, Iceland said, “thank you.”

“I guess I did”, the captain said, “you are very welcome. How is your head feeling? I think you hit it on side of ship quite hard while going down.”

“It is not too bad”, Iceland said, opening his eyes carefully to see if the eye problem had already got fixed. It seemed to work much better already although there were strange dim spots.

“Good.”

“Okay”, Iceland muttered and nodded, “I know you know who I am so you can drop the act already.”

“What you mean?” the captain asked, “I have been your team leader for half year already, of course I know who you are. Are you feeling okay? Sometimes people get confused after accidents and hitting their head like that.” Iceland nodded.

“I meant what I am”, he explained. For a while the captain looked very confused and Iceland almost thought he had made a mistake, but then the man smiled and laughed.

“Of course”, he said, “I told Norge you were close figuring it all out. How long have you known?”

“Since we were on way to Narvik two days ago”, Iceland replied, “but it was just a strong guess. I wasn’t sure.”

“Very good guess anyway”, the captain said, “well, easier for me to not be stranded on island and pretend that I had no idea about you.”

“Yeah, just being stranded makes this so much better”, Iceland replied dryly. His body was working full speed to prepare the damage nos that he was awake. He was already feeling more like himself, the pain faded away, and he could see the captain’s amazed look when he saw the cuts on Iceland’s cheek closing up and fading to thin scars just in few minutes. It really was a luck he had ended up stranded with that one person who knew what he was.

“It is all about the situation”, the captain shrugged, “I had some food on me when I jumped, and I took liberty to check your jacket pockets while you were out. We have enough food for few days if we eat just a little.”

“Okay, great.”

“Can I call you Island?” the man asked, getting surprised look from the nation that hadn’t expect that question, “I understood that Eiríkur Andersen is just a name you use with those who doesn’t know who you are.”

“Yeah, that is true”, Iceland said, “yes, you can use my real name.”

“Thank you.”

“What is your name?” Iceland asked, “I mean, is it really Thomassen?” The captain smiled and nodded.

“Captain Nils Thomassen at your service”, he said and glanced at the sticks he had set over the fire. Iceland wasn’t sure what the thing on them was, but it looked like dried meat. 

“Dinner?”

“Yeah”, the captain replied, “there is fresh water on that pool over there. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any more dry wood to get the fire bigger and our clothes dry faster. I just hope the weather will not turn colder for night.”

“I guess we just have to go with what we have”, Iceland noted and the captain nodded. The nation decided to give his legs a try and made his way to the pool. His throat was dry and burning, but his body wasn’t exactly ready to function as normal. It took him a while and few declined help offers from the captain before he managed to get his drink. He swore quietly that it was the best water he had ever had and he wondered how he had never thought how good just a simple water would taste. After getting his fill, he returned to the fire, now walking already much better. He felt bit bad for the captain who had the healing speed of human, thought Iceland had no idea how it actually felt to heal so slowly. It had to be worse anyway because the hospitals existed. 

When he got back, the captain offered him one of the meat sticks, Iceland pushed it back. He got a look from the man sitting in front of him.

“I can’t die for hunger”, he explained, the look on human’s face quickly changing from questioning into wonder and curiosity, “it would take weeks for me to get even weaker. If we have not much food, it is better you eat it.”

“Oh”, the captain said and nodded, “I guess that is the plus side of being immortal.” He looked like he would have wanted the Icelander to eat too, but he also saw the logic and admitted that it only made sense for the technically immortal one to skip their meal times. 

“We are not really immortals”, Iceland muttered starting to feel more comfortable with sharing the knowledge now that he knew the captain already knew the secret and they didn’t really have anything else to do there than talk and wait for rescue, “we live only as long our nation does. Nore says we are just using ridiculous lot of time for dying. I think it is just easier to say we are immortals anyway.”

“Nore?”

“Noregur”, Iceland explained, “Norge. Nore is just a nickname.” The man nodded, and took a bite of the dry meat warmed up over the fire. It had to be the poorest dinner Iceland had ever seen, but one couldn’t complain when stranded on empty island in Norwegian sea. 

“He is amazing”, the captain said after a brief silence, and stared at the small fire they had for warmth. 

“Who?”

“Norge”, he said, and Iceland frowned before shrugging.

“I guess he got his good moments”, he muttered, and after a moment added, “he used to take care of me. Long time ago.”

“From the way he spoke to me, It sounds like he still does”, the man noted, and Iceland nodded quietly. He wondered if Norway had already got the message, and hoped his brother would not freak out too much. Hopefully Denmark hadn’t went to his own country

“How you know about us anyway?” he asked just to have some noise around to cover the silence, “you are not the kind that… um… I asked the colonel and she said you don’t have the rights to know by the position or title and I have never heard about you before.”

“Yeah, I know”, the man said with a slight smile and swallowing the last bites of his dinner, “I am not working for him nor have I high enough rank or position to know. The reason is actually quite simple, although. I stumbled upon the secret by accident.”

“Really?” Iceland asked with a surprised tone, “and Nore just let you walk out with that?”

“Yes”, he nodded, “I was 15 years old around that time. My uncle was, and still is, one of the assistants for Norge. Once I asked him if he could get me a summer job. I wasn’t really expecting him to find me anything, I thought he was just some kind of minor office worker, but I was kinda desperate that summer. I didn’t want to end up with telemarketing.”

“I can understand that.”

“Oh, so telemarketing annoys even you?”

“Kinda yeah”, Iceland replied, “so you got the job?”

“I did”, he nodded, “and honestly, it was boring. I was tasked with cleaning places and collect papers around, run some random errants. Still better than call strangers who hates you for it.”

“Most of governmental work is boring”, Iceland noted, and the man laughed.

“Yeah, I noticed”, he said, “but then one day, about two weeks after I started, I got lost and ended up accidentally eavesdropping something I really should not been eavesdropping.”

“My brother?”

“Yes”, he nodded and looked into distance like he was memorizing that day, “he was talking on phone. There were some ministers there too, some high up people, and I knew I should have left, but he kind of… mesmerized me. My uncle had made me to memorize all the politicians and important people so I would not make fool out of myself, but he had never spoke about this man, and still I felt like I had known him my whole life. So I stayed still and listened him to speak about personifications, nation things, and also pretty much telling the poor people to fuck off with their ideas. Hearing him to go off on the most powerful persons of the country really made me realize he had to be even more important, but still I had never heard about him before. I was confused, but so curious.”

“Sounds like my brother”, Iceland noted.

“He really got the style”, the man grinned, “so, of course they found about me pretty quickly, but the mistake had already happened. There was chaos around, and everybody was yelling… but me and him. I was confused, maybe a bit in shock, and he just stared at me. I don’t really know what I was thinking right then, but I wasn’t afraid. I just felt like he was the one I could trust my life with at any moment.”

“Definitely sounds like my brother.”

“And then”, the man lowered his voice and smiled slightly, “he walked closer and asked my name. I can’t even describe that moment or how I felt, but it is wonder that I manage to stutter out my own name. He smiled, and told me he is Norge. It is strange, but at that moment I believed it. I had heard him talking about things that shouldn’t been possible, but all our leading politicians were in that room too. I just couldn’t pass it all as some madman talking.” Iceland glanced at the man, observing the expression on his face. There were no traces of anything negative, not even a hint of jealousy, madness or anger people sometimes felt when they learnt the truth.

“It is normal”, he said, getting a confused look that changed to understanding after the nation continued, “feeling confused and mesmerized around us, I mean. That is normal. It happens to humans sometimes, especially to ones with patriotic feelings. We don’t know why, but it might have been something to do with our presence.”

“Presence?” he asked, and Iceland had to think for a moment before replying.

“It is like a… scent”, he explained, “we all have one, that is how we know who is like us.”

“You smell different?”

“No, it is not just smell”, Iceland said, “it is a feeling. Like mix of different senses…. Um… Let’s say you are holding a stone in your hand.”

“Like this?” he asked and picked up one stone randomly. Iceland nodded.

“Yeah”, he said, “so you can feel the weight and the stone’s hardness and texture. You feel it is wet. If you drop it, you hear specific sound. If you smell it, you smell the earth and dirt. You look at it and see the stone. If you taste… Yeah, so all these feelings tell you it is a stone. Right?”

“I guess.”

“So the presence is kind of same”, Iceland continued, “we all give out different.. sensations, but without really being physically close, so that makes it like scent. It is just around us.” The human thought about that a moment, playing with the stone at the same, but then he nodded.

“I think I get what you mean”, he said, “sometimes I think about somebody when I see, smell or taste something specific. I guess that means I feel those sensations as part of my image and memories of that person. So with your kind it is just more clear and you all get same sensations?”

“Correct”, Iceland said.

“So”, he said, “what does Norge’s presence feel like?”

“I knew you would ask that”, Iceland muttered and thought for a moment how to give words for such special feeling, “it is like standing near the ocean, you know, you can smell the water and salt in wind though you don’t really see it. There is a cold wind, and stars shining on the sky. Deep silence, but kinda comforting one with the hum from the trees. It is like how you feel after long hike when you still have just enough energy to only sit and look around on the highest mountain you could have found. It calms and comforts. It is strong too, like an ice over a lake, bit mysterious because you can stand on ice and look down without knowing what is under there. Bit of smell of spruce, but not too much.” The man nodded.

“That sounds like a home”, he said.

“Yeah”, Iceland agreed quietly. He leaned his chin on his hand and wondered what Norway was doing right then.

“But if you have this presence thing”, the man said, “can’t he just find you right away?”

“No, it is not that strong”, Iceland replied, “we feel stronger and clearer those who are close to us, but nobody can detect another from longer distance than few kilometres. Although Nore claims he heard my voice when I was born even when he was across the ocean, but I think he is just trying to make it sound like he is the cool big brother.”

“It will still help with him rescuing us”, the man noted, and Iceland nodded. 

“Knowing my brother”, he muttered, “he is right now causing havoc and panic, while forcing everybody to look after us.”

“More like looking after you”, the human joked, but Iceland shook his head.

“He is protective over his own people, too”, he noted, “so he is worrying over both of us. And anyway, I can’t die. You can.”

“Woah”, the captain said with a small grin on his lips, “that made me feel good and terrified at the same time.”

“You are welcome”, Iceland said, even offering a small smirk. The human chuckled and shook his head before speaking up again.

“What about Danmark?” he asked. Iceland guessed he was curious but also wanted to just have something to talk about because sitting quietly together on empty island was quite boring and awkward. 

“The Dane is causing even more problems than Nore ever could.”

“No, I meant the presence thing”, the human explained, “what is his?”

“Oh”, Iceland said, “uh, have you ever gone sailing during summer day? Everything is warm, sun is shining, there is a gentle wind so you can just lay back and enjoy?”

“Yeah, few times.”

“That is how Dan’s presence feels like”, Iceland said, “it is kinda bubbling too, and just goes everywhere and ignores the personal space. There is no way anybody can miss it when he shows up. It can be annoying sometimes.”

“I have never met him”, the human said, “but I know few Danes and that sounds like them.”

“Yeah, he really is like his people”, Iceland said.

“How about your presence then?” the captain asked and pushed few dry leaves to the dying fire.

“Can you smell your own smell?” Iceland asked back.

“No, not really.”

“Yeah, so I can’t sense my own presence”, Iceland explained, “but Dan likes to joke that it is like Nore’s with spicy aftertaste, whatever that means.” The captain laughed and reached his hand to check if his jacket had dried at all. His movements were slow and clumsy, making Iceland to wonder if he was more hurt than he had said.

“It is getting late”, he said before Iceland managed to decide if he should ask more about the human’s condition, “I would like to wake you up every few hours in case you got concussion, but I guess your kind don’t really get those.”

“Sometimes”, Iceland shrugged, “but it doesn’t matter. I can stay up to watch fire if you sleep first.”

“Very well”, the captain nodded and glanced up to sky that luckily had completely cleared and without any signs of storm, “wake me up when the moon is over there. We can take turns to watch the fire.”

“Okay”, Iceland nodded. The captain got slowly up, grimacing slightly when he reached for the jacket. Iceland didn’t ask anything or offered help, he assumed the man’s pride would have take well reminds off how much weaker he was when comparing to personifications. So Iceland looked away and let him do himself what he wanted. After all, he didn’t ask for help.

“Goodnight, Island”, the captain said when he had somewhat got himself as comfortable he just could and had his jacket as blanket, “let’s hope we get out of this island soon.”

“Yeah”, Iceland nodded, “sleep well.” The nation stayed up, listening the wind and the breathing of the sleeping human next to him. He wasn’t really worried. After all, it would take long time for him to start to suffer there and his brother was definitely already searching them. It was really just a question of time and Iceland had all the time to use. He was only hoping for a quick rescue for the captain’s sake. 

***** 

Next morning Iceland woke up early, just bit after sun rise, for a strange voice. He opened his eyes, wondering for a moment why his room looked so strange and the bed was hard as stone. Then the memories came back and he sighed deeply.

“Shoo!” he heard the captain saying, “go away!” Iceland looked up, only to see the man trying to chase away a bird that was bit too close to their breakfast to be. Iceland had just few minutes to wonder what a lonely puffin was doing right there when he realized he knew that puffin.

“Wait!” he said and jumped up, his stiff body complaining against such sudden way to start a day after night on bare rock, “that bird… It is my messenger puffin.” The captain stopped his tries to get the bird fly away and turned to look at Iceland, missing how puffin gave a long and way too intelligent look at the Icelander.

“Messenger puffin?” he asked with a frown, “I have never…”

“You are speaking to immortal personification of the nation of Island”, Iceland said, “and you are telling me a messenger puffin is the thing you are not going to believe in?” The captain was clearly confused bit nodded, because it also made sense. Iceland focused on Puffin instead, knowing that the bird would not talk so long there was a human listening.

“Come here”, he said like one would say when calling for a dog, “good bird.” Puffin let a small screech and walked closer, clearly looking deeply annoyed of that all. Iceland already know the bird would not let it go for a long time and he would hear so much about it. 

“If Nore knows where we are, tap with your beak once”, Iceland said in his own language and the puffin rolled his eyes before tapping once Iceland’s hand. It hurt quite lot.

“I meant on stone”, he hissed and got small, mocking screech back. The captain, who was still looking confused and doubting, decided to go to drink so Iceland and Puffin had some privacy. 

“Aye, that is what you get from pulling that stunt!” the bird said once the human was farther away, “messenger puffin, my ass.”

“Okay, next time I will pretend you are wild and throw a rock at you instead. Would you like that more?” Iceland replied dryly, “and you have been doing awfully lot of post carrying work in past, you know. So, Nore is coming?”

“Yeah, once I fly back and tell him about this holiday resort you ended up to”, Puffin looked around and seemed to be not impressed at all, “you know, Icey boy, if you gonna get in shit and fell off the ship, you should at least find a tropical island for that. Not some cold stones.”

“Sorry about not living up to your expectations”, Iceland muttered. 

“Such a disappointment you have always been”, the bird said, “well, I am gonna fly and tell that crazy brother of yours about this place. Can you imagine, that creep actually magic summoned me like what the hell he think he is? My Icey boy can take care of himself no problem, but no mister I am creepy and magic just have to go poof all over the place! I was just sharing some fish with the ladies and next thing I know there is a fucking Norwegian glaring at me.”

“I thought he would take this bit hard.”

“Hard?” Puffin snorted as well as bird just could, “he went fucking mental. Good luck with that once he finds you.”

“Okay, thanks.”

“Going now”, the puffin said and moved his wings, “don’t go anywhere, okay?”

“I will stay right here”, Iceland promised and watched as the bird flew away. The captain came back, still moving clumsier than usually but seeming to be feeling better already. He gave the Icelander a strange look but seemed to have accepted the facts for then. 

“Good news?” he asked and Iceland nodded.

“Yeah”, he said, “Nore is on way to here.” The captain only nodded, not daring to question how the Icelander knew that for sure. He only frowned and glanced at the sea.

“Weird”, he muttered, “I thought I heard a motor just now but the sound disappeared almost right away.”

“It was probably nothing”, Iceland shrugged.

“Yes, and it doesn’t matter now that our rescue is on way”, the captain noted, “well, I guess we have some more time to kill until that.” Iceland nodded and they spent good time with just talking about thing and playing simple games with the little stones they found. Although the captain knew the secrets, he didn’t know much details on what it actually meant to be a personification and he was rather curious to hear about it from Iceland. He also shared stories of his own family, which Iceland found fascinating and surprised even himself with his interest on hearing more. Especially he got curious about the captain describing how it felt to be a father. Such thing had never crossed Iceland’s mind, mostly because he didn’t have a father nor could he ever be one. 

“A helicopter?” the captain suddenly said in mid of their fifteenth tic-tac-toe game, and he looked up to see the source of the sound. It didn’t take long for Iceland to feel two very familiar presences in his mind.

“It is them”, he said and got up to wave to the helicopter they now saw well. The captain used his hand to protect his eyes from sun and let a small whistle.

“That is an attack helicopter”, he said, “one of the best our military has.”

“Of course”, Iceland muttered, “it was probably the first one available and Nore just took it.”

“Isn’t it technically his?” the captain asked when they watched the helicopter stop over them and two persons jumping off, using rope and harness to make their landing smooth, “I mean, he is Norge.”

“Only technically”, Iceland replied and stepped forward to meet his brother. Norway didn’t waste the time to run to him and hug tightly. The helicopter moved away so they could actually hear each other. For once, Iceland replied to the hug just as tightly, even letting his head to rest on Norway’s shoulder.

“Never ever”, Norway said, “jump off the ship during storm. Promise me.”

“I didn’t really plan it”, Iceland muttered, but didn’t say anything more because the Norwegian was shaking. Why, Iceland didn’t know but he only assumed it was the fear and worry Norway had felt making his emotions so strong then. Iceland just hugged him so he would know everything was okay, and he looked at the Dane who was just giving some kind of metallic coloured blanket and food rations to the captain Thomasen. They were speaking, and even if Iceland couldn’t hear what it was about he guessed Denmark was checking how the captain was feeling and giving first aid. 

“Ísland!” another voice suddenly yelled and Iceland knew whose it was, “Ísland” Step away from them.” He looked up, moving just bit away from Norway to meet the agents that had once worked for him. He wasn’t even surprised to see Kristfríður and Jöfur both, they had been the ones helping on field during his time in Copenhagen, but the third one he didn’t recognize. 

“What are you doing here?” he asked, frowning because he had a bad feeling about the agents showing up like that, “I told you to stay away.” Kristfríður looked serious in way one looked like when they were doing something both, dangerous and what they think was the only right thing to do. Jöfur and the other woman stood behind her.

“You need to come with us”, she said, “please, Ísland. Come now.”

“I have already told you, I am not going anywhere with you”, Iceland replied, “you caused all those accidents. I really don’t want to deal with you right now.” He wondered why Norway wasn’t saying anything. Usually the Norwegian took the lead in situations like this but now, when Iceland glanced at him, he was just quietly waiting, observing the situation and giving the Iceland a small nod. He was letting Iceland to deal with the problem himself, and for moment Iceland was so surprised he forgot he was supposed to deal with anything. 

“But Ísland”, the agent said, “you would be safe with us.” Iceland snapped back to the reality and turned to look at the agents, taking few steps closer.

“Listen”, he said, “I don’t know what is wrong with you, but…”

“We read the books”, Kristfríður quickly interrupted, “we did the research. These… people who you call family, they have done horrible things. They have hurt you before and they will do again. You have to come with us.” Again, neither Denmark or Norway spoke up which really confused Iceland. He didn’t even understood what the agents talked about and he was starting to feel like he was the only one being lost there. Especially because he could see the looks the agents and Norway and Denmark were sharing. They sure hated each others. No doubt about that. And Iceland was the one standing middle. 

“We have never done anything wrong to him”, Norway finally said, replying to the blame, “can’t say same for your people. You were the ones stalking, poisoning and ordering a car to hit him.”

“You invaded our land!” Kristfríður yelled back, getting livid with her anger, “it was you who brought plague and made him weak. You hindered the whole nation’s development just so he would stay young and depend on you!”

“You have no idea what you are talking about.”

“You brainwashed him!”

“Shut up!” Iceland yelled, “both of you!” The humans and nations alike closed their mouths mid of sentence and turned to look at the Icelander who had used a moment to think over the situation. He believed he had got most of it figured out, but few things were still missing.

“Ísland…”

“Only speak when I tell you to do so”, Iceland said strongly and sighed, “sit down everybody. I think we need to talk.” There were angry muttering on both side, but Iceland looked serious enough to keep it down and so they settled down, staying good few meters away from each other and Iceland standing middle of it all. He sighed and wondered how ever he ended up there. The puffin came back too, landing on Iceland’s shoulder but not saying anything. 

“Okay”, Iceland started, “I am tired of this and I want to know exactly what is going on. Kristfríður, you first. What the hell is this all about?”

“We want to protect you”, she said, and Norway snorted loudly.

“By almost killing him?” he asked.

“Nore”, Iceland said with a warning tone and glanced at his brother who nodded and calmed down.

“We… We thought bit of scare would show you that you need us”, the agent explained with a honest tone that told she really believed that plan herself, “it was all carefully planned so that it wouldn’t give you any lasting damage.”

“Okay”, Iceland took a deep breath, “and from what you think I need to be protected?”

“Noregur”, Kristfríður almost spit the name out of her month.

“My own brother?” Iceland heard quiet muttering behind him, but ignored it. He guessed it was just Norway and Denmark sharing sharply comments on the agent’s statement and right then he wasn’t in mood to hear it. 

“Yes”, the woman said, “he has done lot of horrible things. Murders, kidnapping, treason…”

“Wait a moment”, Iceland said and raised his hand, “where you got that idea?”

“From books.”

“Which books?”

“History books”, Kristfríður said strongly, “we made our research carefully when we were tasked to evaluate every possible risk and threat toward you. It took us months but finally we had listed up all the biggest threats based on the history and influence on you. The biggest, and most threatening, is Noregur. He has always brought misery to our land and clearly affected the development in negative way. He is also the one having most power over you, although he is not an Icelander himself. The threat of possibly hostile foreign nation is serious.”

“Aha”, Iceland said, “Nore, how you answer to this?” Norway looked calm, but there was a fire in his eyes and Iceland knew he was furious. Still, his voice stayed calm and words carefully selected.

“I admit I once dared to think that hindering the development on Island would made him stay with me longer”, he said, “but never have I done a single thing to hurt him. May my nation fell first before Island suffers for anything.”

“Your people…” Kristfríður started but shut up when Iceland sharply raised his hand.

“Only speak when it is your turn”, he reminded her, “do I understand right that you base everything on what you read from history books.”

“Yes.”

“Do you realize that the history of nations is not the history of us?” Iceland asked, “we are merely pawns that do what we have been told, but we have our own life. If our people do something, it doesn’t mean we agree with them or that we are with them, even if we have to take a part. In fact, we are servants to our nation and sometimes we have to follow orders we really don’t want to follow. That is the curse of being a personification.”  Kristfríður nodded slowly and the two other agents behind him shared a look.

“But there is no doubt he has done horrible things.”

“Oh yeah, he has”, Iceland said, “all the people do horrible things and we have tens life times to do even more. The point is that he has never done anything bad to me. In fact, he has always protected me which reminds me… Nore, why did you sent me to military school?” Norway glanced at him, Denmark giving a small push on his shoulder.

“I sent you there so you would learn more about humans and develop yourself”, Norway said, “and also because we had discovered there was something going on in your land and we thought it was an attack aimed toward you. I believed it was better to not let you know about it and instead of trusting your skills and will to deal with your own problems, I pushed you away and to safety of my land so I could solve everything by myself. For that I apologize. I should have realized you, as an independent nation, should let be in charge of everything that is about you.”

“And why you didn’t do anything when I discovered who was behind the attacks?” Iceland asked, a smile starting to appear on his lips.

“Because of two reasons”, Norway said calmly, “first, we found out there was no attack at all, but just a poor excuse of getting protection for you against  _ somebody that has been protecting you for centuries more _ . Secondly, I learnt that you are capable of more than I thought and that you are not anymore the small child nation left to my protection. You can take care of yourself.”

“Do you have anything else to say?”

“Yes.”

“And?”

“I am sorry”, Norway said, meeting the Iceland’s eyes, “for lying and not trusting.” Iceland smiled, feeling brief but pure joy from finally hearing the words he had wanted to hear for so many year. He had known his brother would come around someday, but he sure had took his sweet time. Norway had always been the stubborn one.

“Thank you”, he said quietly and Norway nodded, “was that what you wanted to tell me in the ballroom?”

“Yes.”

“Well, Kristfríður”, Iceland said, moving on with the problem, “are you still wanting to protect me from my own brother even when I say I don’t need that?” The agent hesitated. Iceland had heard them talking with quiet voices while he talked with Norway, and it seemed their opinions hadn’t been on strong ground at the beginning with. They were starting to think again.

“It is our duty to protect you”, she said.

“Even if I don’t want that?” Iceland asked.

“Even more then”, Kristfríður replied, “he had have long time to brainwash you to believe anything he says.”

“I didn’t even believe him when he told me to wash my teeth when I was a kid”, Iceland said, “okay, let’s try this with different way. You read history to get the idea that he is the bad guy here? Okay, what about that you three go home and read some more about the current situation? Because things change and I think you will easily find out that Noregur is in fact our biggest ally. I can’t really survive only by myself, I need my family.” The agents looked unsure and shared looks, but one by one they agreed.

“Very well”, Kristfríður said after they had all agreed, “we will do that and… evaluate our risks and threats again.”

“You do so”, Iceland said, “and I will tag agent Puffin after you so don’t try anything funny. I am still angry about what you have done.” The agents nodded and after getting permission they got up and left. Iceland looked after them, taking sure he heard the motorboat getting farther before he turned to face his family and the captain Thomassen who looked like he really didn’t want to have anything more to do with their family issues. 

“Nore. Dan”, Iceland said, “I think I want to go home now.”

“Of course”, Norway said, getting up and wrapping his arm around the Icelander’s shoulder, “we will get you back to Reykjavik in no time.”

“I meant the one bit closer by”, Iceland said and Norway smiled when he realized what the Icelander meant. 

“Of course.”

“And I think we gotta talk bit more about these things you realized lately”, Iceland continued, “so, you are not gonna be over-protective about me anymore?”

“I can’t give promises, but at least I will let you know about everything now on and I will try to change my habits”, the Norwegian said with a small grin on his lips,  “I have to say the program at the military school wasn’t waste of time for you. I can see you learnt a lot.”

“Just wait until I get back to work”, Iceland snorted and Norway nodded.

“Hey, guys, I know you are having a moment”, Denmark interrupted, “but this man here needs medical attention so how about we fly now and talk more later? We got years more to waste for that, you know.”


End file.
